THE President, Mr J. A. Kufuor, has directed the Bank of Ghana to immediately suspend the transfer of Mr Charles Noi, Head of Reconciliation and Investigations Department of the bank, to Sunyani.
He further directed that no internal transfers of staff of the Bank of Ghana should take place until the new Governor assumes office.
The President gave the directives through the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, following the transfer of Mr Noi on September 6, to assume the position of Regional Manager of the bank at Sunyani.
The transfer of Mr Noi is believed to have been necessitated by stunning revelations about huge sums of money in foreign currencies which were hidden in foreign accounts.
They were detected following information he sought to reconcile the country’s financial position and submit a report to the Finance Minister.
Mr Noi was on August 20, this year, tasked to work with the Director, Special Duties at the Ministry of Finance to establish a linkage between the ministry and the bank to help examine and report on all outstanding state funds in various foreign and cedi accounts held by the Bank of Ghana.
“The purpose of the linkage is to work with the Head of Reconciliation and Investigations Department of the Bank of Ghana to examine and report on all state funds outstanding in all Foreign Accounts of the Bank of Ghana or cedi accounts, which may be “hiding” elsewhere,” the letter notifying the Governor of the Bank said.
It went further to state that: “This is to ensure that the Ministry of Finance will be able to mop up all government funds for purposes of streamlining each account held by the Bank of Ghana on behalf of the state of Ghana”.
The letter said the Director, for Special Duties, will make direct contact with the Head of Reconciliation and Investigations Department in order to plan strategies to pursue the achievement of the stated objectives.
Although, Mr Noi and the Director, for Special Duties had just started their work, Deputy Governor, Mr L. Van Lare Dosoo, in a letter dated September 6, 2001, and addressed to Mr Noi, said “management has decided to transfer you to the Sunyani branch as regional manager with immediate effect”.
The letter asked Mr Noi to arrange to hand over his schedule of duties to Mr Nicholas O. Sai, Chief Manager.
The President, a source at the Finance Ministry told the Graphic, was not happy with the development and instructed Mr Osafo-Maafo to stop the transfer until the work has been completed and the new governor would have assumew office.
The new Governor, Dr. Paul Acquah, is expected to assume office on October 1.
