BoG has failed Ghanaians – Dr. Apaak

Member of Parliament for Buisla South, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak, has said the Bank of Ghana has failed Ghanaians.

The MP who is a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) specifically blamed the monitoring team of the Central Bank for not doing enough, and alleged it has not served the good people of Ghana well.

According to him, the Central Bank is supposed to work in the interest of Ghanaians but wonders how it had allowed itself to be compromised by some banks which reportedly acquired their licences by false pretenses.

“How is it possible that we have a central bank which is mandated to grant licenses, to monitor and of course evaluate and see to the activities of the banks under its authority do the right thing, and we have reports indicating that there is possible involvement and perhaps even connivance of persons who should have been overseeing these banks in ensuring that they acquitted themselves as per the laid down procedures”, he said.

Dr. Apaak’s comments were on the back of the recent revocations of the licences of the Beige Bank, Construction Bank, the Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank and uniBank, and the subsequent establishment of the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited to take over the assets of these banks.

This was after BoG declared the banks insolvent arising mainly out of bad corporate governance.

Three out of the five banks were said to have used fraudulent means through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital to procure their licences, an act many have called for further investigation and prosecution.

The Buisla South MP believes if the Central Bank had done due diligence the banks would not have been able to get the license in the first place.

“If they were up and doing most of this things, these schemes certainly would have been detected and acted upon except of course there was conniving from within which then may have served as a shield to protect and allow some of these schemes to proceed,” he noted.

He added it is a worrying situation the actions of the Bank of Ghana has brought some banks on their knees.

“What is worrisome is that ultimately the burden of the lack of professionalism, connivance and blatant fraudulent activities have resulted in some of these banks collapsing.”

He also added his voice to the numerous calls for investigations into the matter and a possible prosecution of culprits.