Caretaker Lebanese Finance Minister Youssef Khalil. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil was presented Thursday with the forensic audit of Banque du Liban's (BDL) accounts, as carried out by the Alvarez & Marsal firm, the ministry's press office reported.
In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry said that Khalil had been given "the final version of the report, in accordance with the contract signed between the two parties."
The text added that the minister transferred the document to the caretaker prime minister's office.
In turn, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati forwarded the document to his cabinet ministers, the office of the presidency — even though the presidency has been vacant for nine months — and to Parliament's secretariat general.
A letter from the Ministry of Finance was attached to the report that highlights the confidentiality clause in the contract between the Lebanese state and Alvarez & Marsal.
On Monday, Khalil gave Mikati audit reports of BDL that were executed several years ago by the firms KPMG and Oliver Wyman. They found that BDL had not used consistent accounting methods and had not complied with international standards.
The forensic accounting audit, on the other hand, corresponds to the penal code. It is intended to trace the origin of transactions recorded in the institution's balance sheet, in order to detect any fraud.
Initially launched in 2020, Alvarez & Marsal was only able to start work in 2022 under a new contract, as BDL had initially refused to provide requested information. The audit service was invoiced at $2.74 million, according to the second contract signed in 2021.
Although the BDL audit is a prerequisite for the release of a multi-billion dollar aid package by the International Monetary Fund, the IMF has not expressly required the completion of its forensic accounting component.