Four months after an accountant was arrested for alleged
involvement in a $26 million cash smuggling scheme, the organization that
manages the Vatican's
assets and financials, has submitted its operations to outside financial
review.

The move by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy
See is most likely the first outside audit of the Vatican's coffers. In addition to
the audit, the Vatican
also announced that it would create a supervisory board, overseeing the unit’s
consultors.

The APSA office oversees the Vatican's property, provides cash
flow to its bureaucracy, and manages the city-state's overall financial
portfolio.

The review, headed by the global consulting firm Promontory
Financial Group, will "allow for greater depth and detail in the
verification of the financial condition and management" of the office,
said the office's president, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno in a statement this week.

The statement did not disclose whether the review will be
made public.

The review follows the questioning of former accountant,
Msgr Nunzio Scarano, over his alleged involvement in a cash smuggling scheme
on behalf of a family of shipping magnates. Scarano, who had worked for the
office for 22 years, was arrested in June.

According to Italian media reports, Scarano has claimed that
APSA conducted a series of financial improprieties, including illicitly allowing
those outside the Vatican
to participate in its funds and accepts gifts from banks in exchange for making
deposits. Scarano is also accused of money laundering using the Institute for
the Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican
bank.

In a bid to clear itself of previous allegations of its own
impropriety, the bank openly published a yearly financial report for the first
time on 1 October 2013, following Pope Francis’ orders for a review of the
bank's operations to be conducted this year.