News:
August 24, 2018
The Finance Committee of parliament is expected to begin probes to ascertain reasons resulting into the collapse of some seven banks in the country.
The Committee after a crisis meeting held in Parliament has scheduled a three day hearing starting from 5th to the 7th of September, 2018 for the exercise.
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah said the committee had written to the Bank of Ghana for the relevant documents that will help the committee into the probe.
“We agreed on the mode of the hearings and who to invite and all other matters, so that is what we have been deliberating on. We are now going to write to the Bank of Ghana, that is why we have given ourselves three weeks to ask for documentation and we will meet again here on the 30th of August to peruse those documents and if there are any gaps, we will ask for more.
So we need documentation to form our opinions on what to do, primarily there is going to be hearings and the dates have been agreed upon. Today we are writing to the banks to ask for all the documents” he stated.
Dr Assibey-Yeboah also a Member of Parliament for New Juaben South explained that the Committee will invite the Bank of Ghana, KPMG, PwC, Ministry of Finance, and the new Consolidated Bank of Ghana Ltd.
According to the Chairman, Parliament is generally concerned about the Ghanaian economy hence the move.
“We are concern with the economy generally, all matters dealing with the economy and if banks are collapsing and the Ministry of Finance is setting up a bank, and if they are doling out GH?8billion, don’t you think we should be concern? So how are we strengthening the law for example, banks and specialized deposit taking laws so these do not recur? He asked.
On the 1st of August, the Bank of Ghana announced the formation of the Consolidated Bank of Ghana after the collapse of some 5 banks [Unibank, Sovereign, Construction, Beige and Royal], according to BoG they were insolvent and revoked their licences then merged them into what it has been christened the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.
This comes only a few months after it revoked the licences of the UT and Capital Bank which were also indigenously owned.
By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com