Vatican anoints ex-Deloitte man as Church auditor general

THE VATICAN has installed a Deloitte man as its first auditor-general as part of reforming Pope Francis’ latest assault on cleaning up the tainted and scandal-riven reputation at the global HQ of the Roman Catholic empire.

Italian Libero Milone, an ex-chairman and CEO of Deloitte in Italy, has been selected for the role, and he is expected to play a key part in cleaning up its finances, a Vatican statement confirmed.

Last year, KPMG was brought in by the Vatican to advise it on its internal accounting procedures following a series of problems within the Holy See’s finances.

The 66-year-old accountant has garnered a wealth of experiences at major organisations in the UK, the US and Europe. He has worked as an auditor at the United Nations world food programme and car giant Fiat.

Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, said the auditor-general will be solely answerable to the Pope and has carte-blanche to review the Vatican’s finances in any department.

The bank – officially known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) – which has been embroiled in a number of recent scandals – has now beefed up its regulatory standards and shut thousands of accounts deemed inappropriate to its new, tougher standards or were inactive, Reuters reports.

The IOR’s reform, alongside other Vatican departments which play a role in Church finances has been one of the most delicate matters to confront the 78-year-old Argentinian pope – the first to hail from South America.

Pope Francis has already appointed Australian Cardinal Pell – who has denied recent accusations that he helped cover up abuses by a paedophile priest – as the Church’s finance chief to run and reform the Holy See’s finances.