BoG 'caught' hiding over GH¢711m expenditure on remodelling of offices, guest house – Ablakwa

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has condemned the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for allegedly committing over GH¢711 million for the remodelling of its regional offices, the construction of a guest house and its new head office in 2022 even though the country was in the midst of an economic crisis.

In a post shared on Facebook on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, Ablakwa said that the BoG attempted to hide this expenditure but was exposed by independent auditors from auditing firm, Deloitte.

He questioned why the central bank was attempting to hide the transactions if it had done nothing wrong.

“Thanks to independent auditors at Deloitte, we now know from page 86 of the Bank of Ghana’s 2022 Annual Report and Financial Statements that the Bank of Ghana made a staggering GH¢711.21 million expenditure commitment in its crisis year of 2022 on reckless projects such as its scandalous new head office, remodelling of regional offices and construction of a guest house in Tamale.

“What is equally disgraceful and condemnable was BoG’s attempt to conceal these risky humongous transactions by its disingenuous refusal to disclose them in its original financial statement presented to auditors. Regrettably, the auditors had to make their own discovery.

“If the Bank of Ghana had nothing to hide and was really proud of its sleazy new headquarters project and all the other dubious constructions, why did they deploy such elaborate opaque concealment schemes just to avoid accountability?” he quizzed.

The MP shared a portion of the document which indicated that independent auditors at Deloitte revealed that the BoG did not include its capital expenditure commitments of GH¢711.21 million in its financial statement as at December 31, 2022.

The document indicated that the major projects under the expenditure included the remodelling of some regional offices of the central bank, the development of the Bank of Ghana Head Quarters and the development of a Guest House in Tamale.

View the MP’s Facebook post and the document below:

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