Report: Alvarez and Marsal in Beirut Soon after Audit Halt

The restructuring consultancy Alvarez and Marsal company expected to run forensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank accounts will reportedly arrive soon in Beirut after reports the audit was halted over insufficient documents, LBCI TV reported on Tuesday.

LBCI said a team from Alvarez is expected to arrive in the coming hours to hold talks with caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni about the contract signed between the company and the Lebanese state.

Alvarez believes the central bank handed insufficient documents and information required to proceed with the audit.

In September, New York based firm Alvarez and Marsal started a forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon as part of measures towards reforms to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

It set November 3 as a deadline for the bank to provide it with all information needed for the review, a source at the finance ministry said.

But the central bank has handed over less than half of the documents required to proceed with the audit.

It says provisions of the Code of Money and Credit and the Banking Secrecy Law bar it from releasing the rest.

Diab's government has repeatedly accused central bank chief Riad Salameh of being responsible for the collapse of the Lebanese pound.

Critics from across the political spectrum have charged that Salameh's financial policies led to Lebanon's ballooning sovereign debt and its first default in March this year.

Salameh has defended himself, saying that the central bank "has funded the state, but did not spend the money".