You have forgotten your accounting standards - Dr Atuahene on BoG's GH¢60 billion loss

Banking Consultant, Dr. Richmond Atuahene, has said persons attributing the Bank of Ghana's GH¢60 billion loss to technicality have forgotten their international accounting standards.

According to him, per the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS9), there is nothing like technical loss in finance, accounting and banking.

Dr Atuahene explained that the IFRS9 shows how managers treat assets.

Speaking on GhanaWeb TV's BizTech hosted by Mawuli Ahorlumegah, the banking consultant said, "Those who are saying it is a technical loss, they don't know IFRS9; International Financial Reporting Standard 9. There is nothing like a technical loss in it. When we go to the energy sector, we have what we call technical loss, but when we come to finance, accounting or banking, IFRS9 tells you how you treat these assets."

"So those who say technical loss, I don't know where they got the law from...those who say technical losses have forgotten their accounting standards," he stated.

Dr Atuahene further stated that the Bank of Ghana Act 612, Act 2002 as amended 2016 (918) states categorically that "whenever there is an emergency, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana Governor, and the Accountant General should meet and decide how they will go about it and report within 7 sitting days to parliament to get the approval of parliament before all these things happen."

However, the law was ditched and as the Central Bank and Finance Minister went about things their own way.

The banking consultant stressed that the implications of the losses incurred by the central bank were huge.

It would be recalled that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) incurred a loss of GH¢60.8 billion billion from its audited financial statement for the 2022 fiscal year.

This loss, according to the BoG, is largely due to the government’s debt restructuring activities and cocoa bills.

On the back of this, the minority in parliament called for the resignation of the BoG Governor alongside his two deputies, over the bank’s ‘insolvency’ and ‘mismanagement’.

But addressing the press on Monday, August 21, 2023, the Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr Ernest Addison said the loss will not affect the bank’s operation.

He also said BoG will manage to reduce its operational costs during this period – 2023.

SA/MA

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