Banking crisis: Deal ruthlessly with BoG officials - Consultant

Financial Consultant, Dr Richard Atuahene, is calling for prosecution of all Bank of Ghana (BoG) officials, former or current, found culpable in the recent banking crisis where seven banks have collapsed.

According to him, those responsible for the collapse of these banks must not be left out of the hook and should be punished ruthlessly by facing the full rigours of the law since their contributions have impacted negatively on the financial sector.

Speaking on Accra based Joy FM, Dr Atuahene said “what the Receiver is doing is a step in the right direction. I would also say that in as much as doing the recovering of loans are a civil issue, they should quickly get to the criminal aspect of the case.”

About GHc11 billion has so far been spent on these collapsed banks to protect depositor’s funds. The Central Bank is believed to have injected over a billion is cedis into GCB Bank after it took over the assets and liabilities of UT and Capital Bank, and more than nine billion cedis into Consolidated Bank (force merger of Beige, uniBank, The Royal, Construction and Sovereign Bank).

The Bank of Ghana has already established the Office of Ethics and Internal Investigations to investigate their own officials (current and former) found culpable regarding the collapse of these seven banks.

Dr Atuahene who has been crusading for the perpetrators to be brought to book said “all those found culpable including the Bank of Ghana officials that you are worried, I’m worried…..all these went on under the nose of certain people who are supposed to be responsible at the Bank of Ghana and they must be dealt as such. They must be brought to book when found culpable, they must be dealt ruthlessly.”

He added that the Central Bank officials should have known better than the shareholders and directors of these collapsed banks who also played a larger role in the collapsed of the banks.

Meanwhile, information reaching Business Finder indicates that the Receivers of the other five banks will also follow suit soon by suing shareholders and directors of these defunct banks. They are also expected to drag all debtors who owe the defunct banks several millions of Ghana cedis to court.

Pwc has dragged the shareholders and directors of Capital Bank to court for playing major roles in the collapse of the bank. The directors include Pastor Mensah Otabil, William Ato Essien, Rev. Fitzgerald Odokor, Dr. Stephen Enchill and Isaac Osah Thompson-Mensah. They have been sued for mismanagement and breach of banking regulations which led to the collapsed of the bank.



Right after the writ against them, the Receivers also dragged Ibrahim Mahama, brother of former President John Mahama and four of his companies to court for owing the bank to the tune of GHc358.8 million.