Bank of Ghana must be blamed for Capital and UT banks collapse - Tax Lawyer

The government must be blamed for the state in which the two banks; UT Bank and Capital Banks find themsevles now, law lecturer with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) said.

An astute female tax lawyer, Mrs Clara Beeri Kassar-Tee has laid the blame squarely on the doorstep of government accusing Bank of Ghana (BoG) of reneging on it duties to ensure banks in the country regularly report their annual financial statements to them.

According to the lecturer, who spoke on the Joy FM’s weekly news analysis programme Newsfile, failure of BoG to monitor the activities of these two banks led to the fold up and takeover by government.

“What did the Bank of Ghana do because the Directors of the Banks owe an obligation to the Bank of Ghana to report”, she stated.

“So when they did not report what did the Bank of Ghana do? …Did the Bank of Ghana take action? …they just waited and in the light of all these panic reaction”, Lawyer Mrs Clara Beeri Kassar-Tee quizzed.

“When I heard the announcement I did not make judgment on one way or other precisely because the facts [then] were insufficient”.

“I have not heard the Bank of Ghana say the banks breached their reporting obligations. …you just throw allegations and suspicions and you proceed to act”.

“I do not think it is proper”, lawyer Clara Kassar-Tee fumed during panel discussion.

But whether or not the regulator followed the laid down procedures and applicable rules and regulations I couldn’t tell became the facts were not there”.

“With respect to securing depositors’ deposit it is a good thing to always move to protect the industry and to also protect depositors’ banks”, she pointed out on the show.