Contempt suit against BOG fixed for Friday

Accra, Aug 15, GNA - The Accra Regional Tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Benjamin Tetteh will on Friday, August 18, hear a suit filed against the Bank of Ghana (BOG) and two persons for contempt.

The bank its Governor and the Director of Human Resources Development have been jointly cited for contempt by Sebastian Gavor, former Director of the bank's Department of Budget and Accounts.

Gavor and two others, Justice Ofosu Larbie, former deputy director of the Banking Department, and Alhaji Sadiq Gimala, a businessman and chief of the Wangara Community in Accra, are being tried for their alleged involvement in a seven-billion-cedi fraud scandal that hit the bank in May.

On July 17, the trial tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Isaac Duose ordered the Bank of Ghana to rescind its decision to dismiss the two bankers.

The bank ordered that the two former officials should rather be interdicted until the case against them is determined. In a supporting affidavit, Gavor explained that on June 30, he received a dismissal letter from the bank alleging that he had breached the bank's rules of employment.

Consequently, the bank stopped the payment of his salary and other benefits, such as the use of his official car and medical care. Gavor stated that his solicitors wrote to inform the bank of the need to restore him to the "status quo", as ordered by the trial tribunal.

According to him, taking cognisance of the fact that the orders had to be complied with within seven days, he issued a cheque for 250,000 cedis which the bank not only dishonoured, but marked "account non-operational".

He said following these developments, he requested for a statement of account, which the bank also turned down.

Gavor explained that despite the request by his solicitors to restore his official car and other benefits denied him, the Governor being head of the bank, and the Director of Human Resources Development who initialled the letter, have "shown gross disrespect" for the trial tribunal for not obeying its orders.

"Such disobedience exhibited to the tribunal is deliberate and intentional and is tantamount to undermining the integrity of the tribunal."

This, he said, amounts to contempt. Meanwhile, an appeal by the Attorney-General's Department against the order by the trial tribunal for the Bank of Ghana to reverse its decision to dismiss its two former officials, is pending at the Court of Appeal.

Also pending at the Supreme Court for determination is an ex-parte motion filed by BOG for an order of certiorari to quash the orders made against it by the trial tribunal.