The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini is calling for law agencies to deal with owners of the 5 collapsed banks if it established that they gave out loans without following the appropriate procedures.
Though he said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has no prosecutorial powers if indeed it established owners of these banks flouted the financial rules, the matter could be referred to the appropriate investigative body to deal with the matter if need be.
Speaking on TV3 on Saturday monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the former Minister for Roads and Highways said “The Bank of Ghana has no prosecutorial powers but if there are violations and established criminal acts involving the managers of these banks, they should be dealt withâ€.
Read: The 5 CEOs/MDs behind the ‘collapsed’ banks
His comments were in response to the Central Bank that said it may not be able prosecute the managers of the banks because that is not part of its responsibility.
Meanwhile, the BoG in a sudden U-turn, has hinted that persons whose actions led to the circumstances under which five indigenous banks collapsed would likely face prosecution.
Head of Banking Supervision, Osei Gyasi, has disclosed that the criminal aspect of breaches perpetrated by the insolvent banks are likely to be dealt with in a court of law.
Read: Prosecute and jail culprits of collapsed banks – Casely-Hayford fumes
“We have categorically stated that there have been breaches of the law – the banking act – and there’s been a breach of Bank of Ghana regulations and rules. The criminal aspect of these breaches will be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction.â€
The Bank of Ghana last Wednesday announced that it has revoked the licences of five struggling banks and merged them into one it called Consolidated bank Ghana limited.
They include uniBank, Sovereign Bank, Construction Bank, Royal Bank, and Beige Bank.
BoG said some of the insolvent banks obtained their licenses using suspicious and non-existent capital.
It added that some breached cash reserve requirement, others had negative capital adequacy ratio, and shareholders of some of the banks too engaged in supposed dubious transactions.
Prior to that, the BoG had earlier taken over uniBank with an excuse of saving the bank from collapsing.
It handed over the administration of uniBank to independent audit firm, KPMG Ghana after which it presented its report to the BoG.
Read: MP demands resignation of BoG governor
With regards to the uniBank, Mr. Gyasi said: “If you look at the KPMG report that we have, the report has categorized the breaches – some were in connection with the law, some in connection with governance and others in connection with rules and regulations.â€
Source: Mynewsgh.com