The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central Isaac Adongo has stormed out of the Finance Committee hearing on the crisis in the banking sector, describing it as worthless.
The officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Finance Ministry are being questioned by Parliament’s Finance Committee about the roles the institutions played in the collapse of some seven local banks – Capital, UT, Sovereign, Royal, Beige, Construction and uniBank.
Five of the aforementioned banks – Sovereign, Royal, Beige, Construction and uniBank have since been merged into one entity under the name Consolidated Bank of Ghana.
Speaking to Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan moments after he walked out of the hearing, Adongo said: “This is a rubber stamp process. It’ll deliver no value and I’m not willing to be part of it.”
He added: “These are the documents they gave to us; statements of the banking sector, press release by Bank of Ghana, press release of government when it comes to KPMG they only give you conditions and opinions of uniBank.
“There was five asset quality review at uniBank. There were four of them in one month. We don’t even have that report. They claim that there was a preliminary work that was done by KPMG to take a decision to go into it, we don’t even have that report. We don’t even know the terms of reference of the job that KPMG did. We don’t even know what contract we signed with Boulders. We don’t even know the full report of Boulders except for an executive summary of boulders work.
“Why will I sit in that meeting? I won’t sit in that meeting.”
Accusing the BoG of covering up the government’s deliberate collapse of huge local banks, the Bolganta Central lawmaker railed: “I can’t see how the state will spend GH¢8billion [with] close to 6000 jobs being lost and a Parliamentary enquiry and this is what they bring to me and I want to be part of that meeting and give credence to it? I don’t take part in rubber stamp meetings.”
When confronted with the fact that his colleagues are actively participating in the enquiry, he snarled: “Well, that’s what they want to do. I’m for my constituents and I feel that my constituents deserve better than this.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
