MP Ibrahim Kanaan requested at the start of Monday's session that the law be added to Parliament's agenda. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Parliament approved Monday the extension of a law that lifts banking secrecy on public accounts to facilitate a forensic audit on the country’s central bank, multiple MPs announced via their Twitter accounts.
Here’s what we know:
• The law was not originally included on Parliament’s agenda for Monday’s session; however, Free Patriotic Movement MP and head of Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee Ibrahim Kanaan requested at the start of the session that it be added.
• In a tweet, MP George Adwan (Lebanese Forces/Chouf) also said “we demanded to add to the schedule a law [on banking secrecy] that extends the work of the financial audit.”
• The Lebanese government has twice signed contracts with the firm Alvarez & Marsal to audit BDL’s accounts. The firm canceled the first contract due, it said, to BDL’s failure to provide the documents needed to complete the audit. The second contract was signed in September 2021, but the financial audit remains incomplete.
• Parliament approved a law in 2020 that lifted banking secrecy on BDL’s accounts for one year. This period expired on Dec. 29.
• During the session, Parliament also sent a law that includes a proposal designed to prevent interference in the judicial system back to the parliamentary committees for further discussion.
• Monday’s session came to an end when Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned it at 2 p.m. due to lack of quorum, following the departure of many MPs.
• Parliament had been set to reconvene Tuesday, but a source close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, told L’Orient Today the session had been canceled as Parliament “finished all of its schedule” on Monday. However, not all the laws on Parliament’s agenda Monday were addressed. For example, a controversial law that would allow municipalities to grant exceptional building permits, circumventing the permitting process, went undiscussed.