Parliament to subpoena BoG governor – Over financial breaches

The Minority caucus in Parliament is engaging the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to subpoena the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, to appear before the Finance Committee of the House over some alleged breaches.

Among other things, the Minority has alleged that the Governor has failed to comply with its own law of filing and publishing it’s financial statements every 15 days and to Gazette its assets and liabilities at end of each month.

“It’s been almost six months now and the BoG is in clear violation of this provision,” Isaac Adongo, Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, told a press conference in parliament on Wednesday.

Collapsed banks

Mr Adongo said the BoG had dragged people to court in violation of the BoG Act, leading to the collapse of some and was therefore strange that the central bank was violating its own Act.

“He should know that the same level of accountability would be extended to him.”

“He can decide whether to cut his losses to comply with the law or to continue with this violation of its own Act and that the long arm of the law is waiting for him.

And he should remember that criminality has no expiry date,” he stated.

Warning

Mr Adongo warned the Board of Directors and auditors of the bank that they could be equally complicit for supervising unnecessary impairment of the bank’s assets emanating from careless lending and printing of money to government, stating that that would be investigated.

He said such investigations would reveal whether such auditors operate in accordance with acceptable practice.

“If we find out in future that the auditors and the board of directors are complicit by concealing the true statement of affairs at the BoG, we will take steps to remedy the situation.”

“Those steps include reporting these auditors to the regulatory bodies that govern their works,” Mr Adongo said.

Evasion

He said both the caucus and the Finance Committee would ensure that the BoG properly accounted for its stewardship.

“By tomorrow or latest Friday, my lawyers will write officially to the BoG to comply with the law,” he said.

Mr Adongo, who is the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, indicated that over the last two to three years, the BoG had been evasive in appearing before the Committee.

He said the committee had to write to him to start filing his report but has failed to appear before the committee.

“There is no hiding place for him.

He cannot be reckless, collapse banks, render our livelihood useless with high inflation, interest rate and depreciation and pretend all is well,” he said.