'The forensic audit is coming to an end,' says Aoun

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Monday that the battle to conduct a forensic audit of Banque du Liban “is coming to an end,” adding that he is optimistic about how the process is progressing.

Here’s what we know:

    • “The battle of the forensic audit is coming to an end,” pan-Arab website, al-Mayadeen, quoted Aoun as saying.

    • The audit, which is a prerequisite of for any international financial rescue package, has hit an array of obstacles over the past two years, beginning with BDL using the Banking Secrecy Law as a pretext for refusing to meet the requests of Alvarez & Marsal Middle East Limited, the firm contracted to conduct the audit. However, in late February, A&M officials expressed optimism during a meeting with Aoun, telling him they “hope the data they have received [from the central bank] is compliant with the information they have already requested.”

    • Since the beginning of the unprecedented economic crisis that became apparent in Lebanon in 2019, Aoun's party, the Free Patriotic Movement, and its leader, Gebran Bassil, have been in favor of a forensic audit of the accounts of public bodies and Banque du Liban.

    • Aoun added that “the course of justice — whether in the local as much as the international scene, may well be delayed, but certainly does not stop.” Local and foreign prosecutors have opened probes into the personal wealth of central bank Governor Riad Salameh on suspicions of embezzlement and money laundering.

    • Talking about his relationship with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who has been Aoun’s ally since February 2006, the president admitted that “we do not speak to each other much. But we understand each other easily.”

    • Hezbollah and Aoun started an alliance under Mar Mikhael's agreement on February 6, 2006. The FPM, however, accuses the Shiite party of not joining it to fight corruption. Nonetheless, the two parties intend to join forces in the legislative elections scheduled for May 15.