Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa has criticized the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) refusal to submit to Parliament’s investigations into the circumstances leading to the revocation of the licenses of uniBank and UT Bank.
“There is no law that stops parliament from holding an enquiry into anything that has happened in this country and there is no law that makes BoG above parliament…” he argued on News File on Saturday.
Through its lawyers, the Bank of Ghana, among other things has said that the petitioners, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Dr Kwabena Duffour, who are the owners of the two defunct banks, are only seeking to use Parliament to have its decision reviewed.
The central bank insisted that its decision to revoke the licences of uniBank and UT Bank was taken in accordance with statutory powers it draws from the Banks and Specialised Deposit Taking Institutions (BSDTI) Act, 2016 (Act 930).
“The BSDTI Act provides how persons who are aggrieved with such decisions may seek redress for their grievances, and the prescribed resolution mechanisms do not include recourse to Parliament.”
But Kofi Bentil in his argument posited that there is the need for a post-facto hearing that will evoke a change in the current systems that has caused the murky situation in the banking sector.
“Look we must not be eager to just destroy things, we must be eager to make sure that going forward we’re stronger than where we were.”
He added: “The end game is to understand why we went through this, how we have done it, mistakes that have been made, things that could have been done better plus a number of other things so that we have a total picture for posterity of all these issues and there is clearly a role for in that sense”
Background
Former stakeholders of the banks, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Dr. Kwabena Duffuor petitioned Parliament to investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Stock Exchange in the revocation of the licences of UT Bank as well as uniBank and delisting them from the country’s stock exchange.
The petition also sought the restoration of the licences of these banks.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, subsequently constitute a nine-member committee to look into the petition presented to the House.
This was after the petition was officially brought before him by the Bawku Central legislator, Mahama Ayariga.
Source: Ghana/Kasapafmonline.com/102.5 Fm
