CBG 'fiscal fraud on taxpayers' – Adongo

Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, has said that the collapse of some five local banks and the subsequent creation of the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) Limited, is nothing short of “a fiscal fraud on the Ghanaian taxpayer”.

CBG was recently formed by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) when it fused together five struggling local banks, including The Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, The Royal Bank, uniBank and The Construction Bank.

According to Mr Adongo, CBG “is a pongy Special Purpose Vehicle for fiscal fraud on the people of Ghana”.

He said the influence and interests of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Databank are “all over the so-called Ghana Consolidated Bank. A careful look at the team that took over the five banks will tell you it’s a fiscal fraud on Ghanaians to create a bank for Databank and Ken Ofori-Atta”.

In a statement on Thursday, 9 August 2018, the legislator questioned why an official of Databank was appointed to serve as a management team member of Consolidated Bank Ghana.

“Babatunde Ampah is the current Vice-President of Databank in charge of Corporate Finance. What is he doing there? Are Databank staff now part of BoG? Did Babatunde front for Ken Ofori-Atta to buy two of the merged banks and when it failed, Bank of Ghana moved in, with Babatunde leading the team to take over one of the banks he fronted for Ken Ofori-Atta to buy?

“Who will appoint the transaction advisor for an eventual IPO? Who will determine the allotment of shares?” he questioned, adding: “Don’t be surprised to see this go to Databank and Enterprise Group or companies with beneficial interest.

“How can a Finance Minister who refuses to pay GHS5.7 billion owed contractors and service providers that would have saved the local banks rather find GHS8 billion to collapse same banks with the GHC5.7 billion still unpaid? How much are we spending on free SHS? Just a paltry GHS1.2 billion for 2018 and yet we are on the verge of spending GHS10billion of taxpayers’ money to clean up and prepare a prey for someone to take it.

“Until Ken Ofori-Atta is removed; the BoG Governor Dr Ernest Addison resigns, and we clean up the dominance of Databank in the regulatory space, Ghana’s banking and financial sector will be a pale shadow of itself and no recapitalisation will save it,” he stated.

In his analysis of the developments in the banking sector, CBG “is a scheme for you and I to clean up any mess and pay for any toxic assets in these five banks and leave a properly trimmed, repaired, capitalised and fully solvent bank to be sold to cronies under the guise of listing on the stock exchange”.