By Sami Zaptia.
London, 23 July 2019:
The UN announced yesterday that it is reopening the tender bidding process for a financial audit review of the two branches of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL).
It said that the current tender is being issued openly after the closed bidding process, which was launched in early 2019 and ended in April, did not produce a contract with one of the Big Four auditing firms.
UNSMIL said that restoring confidence, promoting transparency, and supporting the reunification of Libya’s financial and economic institutions are crucial to Libya’s stability and the prosperity. Towards this end, it added, UNSMIL remains committed to facilitating a financial audit review of the two branches of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) as requested last year by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.
It recalled that the Secretary General’s Special Representative Ghassan Salamé convened the governors of the two branches on two separate occasions in 2018 in order to agree the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the financial audit review. The international financial institutions were also consulted during the process.
On 23 July 2019, the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS), at the request of UNSMIL, re-opened the bidding process for a financial audit review of the two branches of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL).
The tendering process will remain open for three weeks after which the UN will select the best offer based on international standards after having consulted the two CBL branches.
The tender is based on a Terms of Reference (TOR) for the audit review agreed upon by the two governors of the two CBL branches.
UNSMIL intends to conduct the financial audit review in a collaborative manner with the objective of creating greater transparency and the conditions for eventual unification of the CBL. This is an extraordinary process intended to lay the basis for restoring financial integrity, accountability, and public confidence and enable Libyan institutions to resume their normal functions and capacities, UNSMIL said.
