Central Bank refuses to provide Alvarez & Marsal with information-Lebanese official to The Daily Star

A senior Lebanese government official told The Daily Staron Tuesday that the Central Bank refused to provide international auditor Alvarez & Marsal with all the required documents and information “under the pretext of banking secrecy and money and credit law.”

 

The same official added that the firm officially requested from the Lebanese Central Bank to be provided with around 100 documents “so it can carry out its preliminary investigation to determine if there were actually any suspicious accounting irregularities.”

 

“The auditing firm seemed very upset about the Central Bank’s reaction and will study the possibility of ending the contract with the government to conduct the first forensic audit of the Central Bank’s accounts,” the senior official told the daily on condition of anonymity.

 

The official also noted that Lebanon’s Parliament needs to amend some items in the banking secrecy law to specify what information can be disclosed, adding however that these amendments will facilitate the work of the Central Bank.

 

He did not reveal the nature of the information the firm asked from the Central Bank, adding that such matter belong to the two sides only.