Government's claim of paying 96% of locked up funds false - ASEPA

The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability [ASEPA] has discounted claims by deputy Finance Minister Charles Adu Boahen that majority of customers affected by the banking crisis have been paid.

According to the deputy minister, at least 96% of persons whose monies were locked-up in the collapsed banks and saving and loans companies have received their deposits.

Mr Charles Adu Boahen disclosed told Parliament on Tuesday that 20% of the funds were paid in cash while 80% was paid through bond issues.

“The bonds were structured to pay out over four years,” Mr Adu Boahen said on the floor of parliament during the debate on the Mid-year Budget Review in Parliament on Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

Reacting to the claim, ASEPA in a statement signed by its Executive Director Mensah Thompson said the minister peddled falsehood.

“Less than 5% of Customers of Fund Management Companies have actually been paid, for Savings and Loans Companies the estimate is around 3% of customers and the Microfinance is hovering around 6%.

“Commercial banks/Universal banks have the highest number of Customers paid, because of the 50% discounted coupon been redeemed at CBG. Close to 15% have redeemed their 5years Non-tradeable Zero Coupon bonds at CBG at a discount of 50%. Which means they had to forfeit half of their locked-up funds,” ASEPA said.

The Statement also claimed some officials in government have benefitted from the collapse of the banks

Below are details of the statement by ASEPA

The Deputy Minister for Finance was in Parliament a few days ago answering questions on the so called Banking Sector Reforms and made a number of untruthful claims which we would like to clarify.

Prominent of them was the claim that about 96% of customers of Collapsed Financial Institutions have received their locked up funds and that those who haven’t received their funds yet is as a result of some legal actions some of the Banks have taken against the reciever.

1. First of all that claim is NOT only FALSE but extremely Capricious. Apart from UT bank and Capital which the BoG asked GCB to take over some selected Assets and Liabilities of these two banks after is vicious collapse, which led to some payments of customers, NOT so much has been done to pay Customers of the Collapsed Financial Institutions apart from Needless Validations,Re-Validations and Counter Validations by the Reciever.

2.Even in the case of UT bank and Capital Bank, Government did NOT give GCB money to pay the Customers, however it issued a bond of GHC2billion to GCB putting GCB under pressure to dip its hands into its own reserves to pay off some of the customers of the collapsed UT and Capital Bank.

3. Government deliberately leaked information on banks targeted for Collapse to its inner circle members and friends, This made Companies like Databank and Persons close to Government quietly moved their portfolios in those banks earmarked for collapse to safety even before closure thereby reducing the liquidity of the collapsed banks tremendously and you can check the records from May-August 2018.

4.Less than 5% of Customers of Fund Management Companies have actually been paid, for Savings and Loans Companies the estimate is around 3% of customers and the Microfinance is hovering around 6%.

5.Commercial banks/Universal banks have the highest number of Customers paid, because of the 50% discounted coupon been redeemed at CBG. Close to 15% have redeemed their 5years Non tradeable Zero Coupon bonds at CBG at a discount of 50%. Which means they had to forfeit half of their locked up funds

6.The Receiver is Allegedly Selling off Assets of Collapsed Banks Cheaply way below Market Prices. For Example it is alleged that a Toyota V8 at current Market value of over $30,000 was allegedly sold for less than GHC15,000 to Persons close to Government. So Apart from Cruelly Collapsing these banks, Assets of the banks have been sold cheaply to friends and cronies of the Government. Other offices have allegedly been taken over by Databank, allegedly using the offices of some of the collapsed banks to conduct private businesses of databank(the finance Minister’s bank)

7. Government have little commitment to pay Customers, Infact it does NOT even intend to pay them in its second term and that is why a 5year zero coupon bond was issued to customers of the collapsed banks.

8. Now it is evidently clear that the deputy Minister of Finance did NOT only lie to Ghanaians, he decieved Parliament too and must be held for contempt of Parliament or be dragged to the privileges committee if he is a Member of the House.

Mensah Thompson Executive Director, ASEPA 0542120628

Cc Parliament All Media Houses