Lebanon’s former Deputy Prime Minister , Deputy Issam Fares supported today the call for the establishment of an international committee inquiring into the identity of the embezzlers of the Lebanese State Treasury and the perpetrators of the looting committed for the last fifteen years.
In a comment on the reports circulating in the local and Arab press, Mr. Fares stated, ‘The investigation should cover the overall government expenditures that exceeded 90 thousand billion Lebanese pounds (the equivalent of 60 billion US Dollars), and should not be confined to the 40 billion US Dollars public indebtedness’.
Fares voiced hope that this committee would enjoy the prerogatives of investigating with all the officials in order to disclose the squandering of public funds reported during that period of time and uncover the identity of the parties who embezzled the Treasury funds, their way of expenditure, as well as the costs of the projects carried out.

He considered that investigations should also be conducted with those who had benefited from the manipulation of the fluctuations in the exchange rate under the pretence of ‘protecting the Lebanese currency’. Such an action, he said, would contribute in the restoration of the embezzled public funds and the punishment of the perpetrators.

In conclusion, Fares indicated that Lebanon the future could only be built if those responsible for the past are held accountable; otherwise, he said, dreams would evaporate, and hopes would be dashed.