The General Directorate of Finance is the biggest administration within the Ministry of Finance in Lebanon and is in charge of the government’s budget (preparation, execution, and control), the government’s expenditures, the Treasury, the financial supervision of state-owned enterprises, administrative affairs (HR, training, logistics, accounting), and various taxes, including VAT.
As the current Director General of the General Directorate of Finance, Alain Bifani is responsible for managing the administration and the related directorates.
Bifani is known for successfully leading a number of major tasks:
- Reconstruction and audit of Lebanon’s financial accounts
- First ever reliable set of financial accounts for the years 1993-2018
- Introduction of VAT
- Tax transparency program
- Response plan for the Syrian refugees’ crisis
- Lebanon’s EBRD membership
- End of banking secrecy for non-residents
- First insider trading law in Lebanon
- Introduction of petroleum laws and regulations