By Sami Zaptia.
London, 4 August 2016:
The Audit Bureau has announced that it is lifting its suspension on Commerce and Development bank cheques clearance for amounts less than LD 10,000. It gave no further information in its statement released yesterday, and gave no further information regarding its investigation into alleged fraud through Commerce and Development cheques.
It will be recalled that the Audit Bureau and the Public Prosecutor’s Office had ‘‘temporarily’’ suspended all cheque clearance of Commerce and Development cheques on suspicion of fraudulent activity linked to the spike in the black market exchange rate of the Libyan dinar in the third week of July.
The black market exchange rate of the Libyan dinar against the most widely used hard currencies had spiked on 19 July. It broke the five-dinar ceiling against the dollar peaking at LD 5.30 against cash payments and LD 5.80 against Commerce and Development cheques.
Even during the worst years of the Lockerbie embargo and sanctions under Qaddafi it had never reached the LD 5 mark against the US dollar.
