Aoun Promises Lebanese with 'Year of Real Reforms'

President Michel Aoun on Friday pledged to the Lebanese people that the last year of his six-year tenure will be the “year of real reforms.”

“The forensic audit of the central bank’s accounts is a landmark step on the course of abiding by the rules of transparency, combating corruption, reform and accountability,” Aoun said in a statement, shortly after Finance Minister Youssef Khalil signed a forensic audit contract with the New York-based firm Alvarez & Marsal.

“The financial forensic audit was achieved after 20 months of strenuous and daily efforts to reach it, and it responds to the right of the Lebanese to know the reasons of the economic, financial and social collapse that has affected the country and its people,” the President added.

He noted that the audit paves the way for the “aspired reforms” and “meets the desire of the international community to help us achieve economic revival.”

Aoun added that the audit will later involve the public administrations, institutions, councils, funds and committees, especially those suspected of being rife with corruption over the past 30 years.

“I reassure the Lebanese that the last year of my term will be the year of real reforms, after it was not possible to achieve that due to some officials’ putting of their personal interests ahead,” the President went on to say, accusing rival politicians of “forming a network that closed the doors in the face of any reform and protected corrupts and violators.”

“The forensic audit is the gateway of the aspired reform and it must be accompanied by a plan for recovery and revival to compensate for the past period and begin real salvation which is the slogan of the new government,” Aoun added.