Economist demands punitive sanction against BoG directors

An economist, Dr Kofi Lindsay, is demanding punitive sanctions against directors at the Supervisory Division of the Bank of Ghana for negligence and dereliction of duty that led to the collapse of some seven banks in the country.

He argued that if the supervision division of the central bank was active and executed its mandate to the letter, the mess in the financial sector would have been vetted.

“People said the directors of those banks should be hauled before court and be prosecuted. But I believe the heads of the supervision division of BoG are also culpable,” he said on Ghana Dadwen, a news and current affairs programme on Onua 95.1FM

BoG officials, others to face prosecution over collapse of 7 local banks

He wondered what the directors of that supervisory division were “doing all these years in that office until this mess happened; they also must be punished as well”.

Seven indigenous banks have collapsed in the last year after the Bank of Ghana revoked their licence for being highly insolvent.

While the Ghana Commercial Bank took over the good assets of UT and Capital banks which collapsed in August last year, the five others whose collapsed were announced by BoG on August 1 have been consolidated to form the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.



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They are Royal, Construction, Beige, UniBank and Sovereign banks.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, in revoking the lincence of the banks said some of them obtained their licences through fraudulent means.

While some industry experts have called for prosecution of the directors of the seven banks, Dr Kofi Lindsay believes those directors alone cannot be blamed.

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“We need to ensure that people put in positions are working so that we don’t unnecessarily blame others for our inactions and ineffectiveness. I am not saying what the directors of those banks did or not do are right but I think the BoG should also look within” he said.

Dr Kofi Lindsay has asked BoG to put its house in order so as to send the right signals to the investor communities.