By William
Yaw Owusu
Friday June
01, 2018
The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) is
currently investigating the circumstances under which monies disbursed by the Bank
of Ghana (BoG) in support of two liquidated banks were allegedly misapplied.
Reportedly, some members of staff of the Central Bank
are neck deep in the unfolding events, with the immediate past Head of Banking
Supervision Department at the BoG, Raymond Amanfo, being investigated by EOCO.
EOCO
Invitation
EOCO has invited him for questioning over the
circumstance surrounding the disbursements which, sources say, never reached
the collapsed banks.
The current Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison and his
team reported the incident to EOCO.
DAILY
GUIDE understands that the banks involved included two private
commercial banks: UT Bank and Capital Bank whose collapse set tongues wagging
last year.
The Central Bank had revoked their licenses and
appointed state-owned Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) to take-over the assets and
liabilities of the affected commercial banks.
Hiding
Information
According to sources, EOCO is also investigating
instances where some members of staff of the Central Bank allegedly collected
money from some private financial institutions including banks ostensibly to
allow them to bend the rules and hide actual information.
The repercussions are believed to have been the
recent chaos in the banking sector where some banks who were claiming to be
doing well suddenly went into distress.
Sweetheart
Recommendations
Reports say some of the BoG staff after collecting
huge sums from the banks were able to tamper with their reports and gave the
banks ‘sweetheart’ recommendations to make things look as if everything was
well.
There are also reports that the Banking Supervision
Division was strict on those banks that were not ready for any compromise.
It turned out that the former head of the BoG
supervision division was supposed to honour EOCO’s invitation yesterday, but
reports say the invitation did not get to him as at press time.
Official
Queries
A member of staff who works at the office of the president,
Evron Hughes, revealed on social media platform (Facebook) yesterday, how
things got out of hand at the Central Bank without any action to save the
situation in recent past.
“One of the biggest challenges we have had was having
to work with the same people (potentially/criminally) complicit in wrecking
havoc in the banking sector, leading to the collapse of UT and Capital Banks,
and the placement of Unibank under administration.”
He said, “A case in point, which is now before EOCO,
is that of Mr. Raymond Amanfo, then Head of the Banking Supervision Department
of the Bank of Ghana. (Ps: This department is the selfsame unit of the bank
charged with making sure that all banks are being compliant with regulations).”
BoG
Investigation
“Based on preliminary investigations conducted by
Bank of Ghana, Mr. Amanfo is accused of taking huge sums of money from these
banks to falsify documents that enabled them to hide malfeasance, while coming
down hard on those who refused to play ball.”
Mr. Hughes further said that “Yet, I remember Mr.
Amanfo sitting at the table while we scramble desperately to make sure that
these banks do not create a contagion effect on the sector during resolution.”
Corruption
Hoax
“This is the state of the situation, fellow Ghanaians,
yet some people will claim that folks are being asked to go due to their
political affiliations,” he bemoaned, adding “the fact simply is that the rot
in the previous administration was facilitated by people who are still at post,
who are also part of the people creating mischief by making it seem as if there
is some massive corruption going on under the current government in order to
take attention off them, and for 'protection' so that they can claim political
vendetta.”
He said “We will remain resolute in terms of
cleaning up the public sector of corruption, and focus on delivering tangible
benefits for all Ghanaians.”
Governor’s
Concerns
Recently, Governor of BoG hinted that the supervisory
role of the Central Bank was weak and said it was the reason why the financial
sector was beset with challenges, indicating that some of the staff may not
escape punishment.
He said that it undermined the stability of the
banking sector and other non-bank financial institutions.
In an article on the “State of the Financial Sector
in Ghana,” the governor had said that the Central Bank was taking drastic steps
to clean up the financial sector.
Microfinance
Subsector
“The problems in the financial sector were also
reflected in the Microfinance or MFI subsector comprising MFCs, MLCs and FNGOs,
and RCBs and the extent of distress in this sub-sector was characterised by
severely impaired capital; inability to meet regulatory capital adequacy
requirement; generally low asset quality; and liquidity crises. These have
culminated in threats to depositors’ funds, thus, eroding public confidence and
undermining efforts to promote financial inclusion. Of the total number of 566
licensed MFIs in 2018, 211 are active but distressed or folded up”, he
disclosed.
“Also, out of the total number of 141 RCBs, 37 are
active but distressed or folded up. In total, it is estimated that 272 out of
the 707 institutions in the sub-sector, representing 38.5% are at risk.
“This indicates that approximately GH¢ 740.5 million
is owed to an estimated 705,396 depositors of the distressed or folded up MFIs
and RCBs. In terms of significance, the deposits under distress form 8.81% and
52.49% of industry total deposits of RCBs and MFIs respectively”, he added.
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