The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo has raised red flags that the Akufo Addo administration is planning to sell off the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) to private banking firm, Fidelity Bank Ghana.
If this allegation checks out, it will mean that the Akufo Addo administration collapsed about five other privately owned local banks and merged them into the CBG bank so it will be easy to take them over in a nuanced hostile takeover.
Adongo made this startling revelation during a forum on Wednesday by the policy think-tank, Coalition For Restoration. According to Adongo fishy backroom transactions are currently ongoing to offload CBG to Fidelity Bank.
“Another thing the Fidelity Bank is doing is that Am aware they have been offered the opportunity to buy the CBG bank…the Banks [collapsed banks] whose owners are in court seeking redress to take back their property, you are conniving with Government to take over their asset,” Adongo charged.
“You do it at your own risk because the wheels of justice grind but
slowly, but the Justice of the state can change at any time….”
The consolidated Bank is a the state-owned bank created late 2018 after five banks: Sovereign Bank, Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Construction Bank and Unibank, were collapsed by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for allegedly operating fraudulently and under extreme insolvency.
UniBank for instance has headed to court, insisting that there was no basis for the BoG to revoke its license, particularly because its reported insolvency was caused by the government refusing to comply with its obligations to the bank.
In a
related matter, the MP for
Bolgatanga Central has asked the Auditor-General, Daniel Domelovo investigate
the Finance Ministry and its Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta for the recent string of
Eurobond totalling US$9 billion, saying he believes a chunk of the money
has been squandered by the government.
“I am calling on the Auditor-General as a matter of urgency to conduct a
special audit into Ghana’s Eurobonds that have been issued over the last 3
years totalling about 9 billion dollars and determine how they were used and
appropriately reported. We passed a fiscal deficit act that criminalizes
overspending beyond 5percent,” He said.
The Finance Minister in his 2019 budget
presentation on the floor of Parliament said Financing of the country’s fiscal
deficit will amount to GH¢9.6 billion, including a planned sovereign bond
issuance of GH¢9.6 billion.
But Mr Adongo upon careful evaluation, the actual money from the Eurobond spent
on the budget was only US$ 2.2 billion out of the 9.6 billion.
“In the report, they brought to parliament to explain how they used the 2019
Eurobonds, they told us that 9.6billion of the Eurobonds were spent on the
budget. So you expect to see a total Eurobond spent on the budget as of
9.6billion cedis and not 2.2billion. it means they have squandered 7.4billion.
How come you are reporting to the international community and the public that
you have spent 9.6 billion meanwhile that has not reflected in your
deficit? The true figure that reflects is 2.2billon,”