Poor corporate governance to blame for banks' failure - Economist

Poor corporate governance in the financial sector is to blame for the collapse and struggles of many banks and savings and loans companies in the country, Dr Williams Abayaawien Atuilik, a chartered economist and banker has said.

According to him, research has indicated that some board members of financial institutions fail to pay back loans they take from the very institution they are supposed to oversee.

“They [board members] pursue a personal interest which eventually affects the company’s expected growth,” he said.

He added that some board members also do not take board meetings seriously, not being independent-minded during board meetings as well as not being active but rather passive board members.

Dr Atuilik was speaking at a one-day practitioners’ forum on the topic ‘Corporate Governance and Ethics in Business’, organised by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) Institute of Distance Learning (IDL).

Postgraduate students offering programmes such as Accounting and Finance, Business Consulting & Enterprise Risk Management, Industrial Finance & Investment and Strategic Management, as well as Leadership were in attendance.

One major expected outcome of the Practitioners’ Forum is projecting the image of KNUST-IDL as a hub where people in leadership positions, administrators and students are developed, groomed, challenged and motivated to give their best to the growth and development of their respective institutions.

Dr Atuilik took participants through the rudiments of corporate governance systems, particularly in business and the tools for effective corporate governance.

He also touched on Ethics as an essential quality of corporate governance, and the Effective Governance Challenges.

Addressing practitioners and participants at the forum, the registrar of KNUST – Mr A.K Boateng – reiterated that the KNUST under its Institute of Distance Learning has come out with innovative, technologically-driven, sustainable and flexible learning pathways in order to provide opportunities for adults, workers and busy professionals to have access to quality tertiary education.

According to him, the Institute will from time to time bring practitioners with vast industrial and professional expertise to interact and share their knowledge with the students on burning relevant national issues.