Fourth Defense Witness in the case in which Michael Nyinaku, the founder of the defunct Beige Bank has been charged has justified the expansion of projects rolled out leading to Beige Capital Savings and Loans (BCSL) transitioning to become the Beige Bank.
The Witness, Okbell Majdoub, the former Head of Service Quality of The Beige Group, says the bank undertook projects like refurbishments of all the previously existing branches to reflect the institution’s newly acquired status and the construction of completely new offices.
Mr. Nyinaku, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the defunct bank, has been accused of allegedly siphoning customer’s funds and has been charged with stealing GH¢2.1 billion of depositors’ money from the bank.
He has pleaded not guilty to 43 charges including stealing, fraudulent breach of trust, and money laundering, and has been granted bail.
State Prosecutors led by Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a Chief State Attorney had suggested to the Witness that, there was no evidence in the court to show a requisition form, purchase order, or service order form originating from the Bank.
But, the Witness while pointing to a portion of her Witness Statement which had been adopted, said the bank undertook a lot of branch expansion across the country.
“As part of preparations towards the transition of BCSL into universal banking, the bank undertook a lot of branch expansion projects all over the country,” the Witness who was facing cross-examination from the Prosecution insisted.
Mr. Okbell Majdoub, the former Head of Service Quality also told the Court that, one will not have the service order with the Service Quality Department because it is supposed to be a request from the Beige Bank to the Chief Executive Officer.
While disagreeing again with the Prosecution’s suggestion that, she had no records to show to the court because such services were not rendered to the Beige Bank by the Beige Group, the Witness pointed to Exhibit 82H to buttress her point.
“Here we have the Beige Capital Bank and this is a picture that describes the Beige Capital Bank transitioning the branch from the Savings and Loans to a universal bank.
“We changed the look and feel from Alucobonds so we needed a new architectural structure so this is the first we did.
“I would take you through a second branch which we called the Osu Branch,” the Witness stated.
She also, said “I disagree that nothing was done at the Osu branch which was a premium branch.
“Here, before we start anything to do with a work, this is approved by a team so we pick up an architectural drawing that gives us an impression of the branch and how the service flow would operate in the branch.
In relation to that work, she said, “There is always a process we go through which starts with the first requisition from the Beige Bank to the CEO informing them how they want a branch and where they want the branch.
“Based on that, a structure is put together by Babbel and handed over to the project team.
“The project team comprises of us which is the service team which looks out to the fit out of a branch and these I would explain which is funded by the Beige Group for the Beige Bank and these items include the ceilings lamination with the branch which is light, flooring surfaces, teller cubicles which are cladded either in wood or cladded across with brick tiles,” the Witness Stated.
Security measures
For security measures, she said, “all teller cubicles are measured at a distance to keep the teller away for security measures.
“To ensure standardization of the look across all the Beige Banks, the back of the tellers is kept in the color Beige with a standard color which was painted Beige’.
“The signage which was supposed to be facial signage was always fixed behind the tellers,” she explained.
With addition, “to ensure our branches are kept in a tidy order, the front of our tellers was always carpeted and you can see the image of the Osu branch.”
The 4th Defense Witness also said, “in order to keep consistency again for all our branches, the chairs are purchased by the Procurement Department in bulk and placed in front of our tellers and each branch has a minimum of 8 single tap chairs in front of the tellers.
“As part of service requisitions from the BOG, every branch was supposed to have a minimum of 2 client service advisors.
“As part of consumer requisite reporting and hence you would see two tables and chairs in front of the Client Service Officer,” the defense Witness explained.
“We were also tasked by the bank to ensure at all times for the consumer reporting section of the BOG to have in place at the teller point feedback boxes and all other third-party services offered by the bank and these are in place per the picture we have here.
“Prior to all these fit out of a branch from the Beige Group to the Beige Bank, there was a memo raised to the office of the CEO with a list of items to be done to be used for the interior fit-out and the fittings of the branch,” she stated.
Service orders
In order to follow with the works, there is a service order that is done for every vendor that has to work and that is done and filed by the finance department of the Beige Group.
She said, there are several other branches that were done by the Beige Group for the Beige Bank including the Airport West Branch and that is Exhibit 83G.
“In 2017, evolving from Beige Capital and Savings Loans to the Beige Bank, the Airport West Branch was also allocated as a premium branch which was a requisite from the Beige Bank to the CEO of the Beige Group to have more premium branches to credit their new status of a bank and hence the Beige Group acquired a bigger space and a more premium place for them,” she stated.
Sequel to the process from the bank, “service quality was tasked to create a first-class branch for the Beige Bank.”
“This was a task from the Beige Group to the Beige Bank and evidence proves an empty nutshell of a building that had to be put together to serve the bank, not just operational services but to be able to host a few other departments that were supposed to serve the bank.
Teamwork
“As part of a team to serve from The Beige Group to the Beige Bank, we had to undergo a few service checks with the BOG operational team projects team from the Beige Group, Operations team from the Beige Bank and a projecting property team to ensure the authenticity of a branch in that location,” the DW4 stated.
The Defense Witness added that this was done and “was approved by the team and hence the project took a team of about three months and to put together the branch which hosted the various units of the bank because it served as their head office.”
There is evidence of works that were carried which is evidenced in the works of the branch that is in existence today which we can see the building and works included having themes and themes included of the interior and exterior look of the branch.
“Because the business was seated in a highly residential area, we picked a theme for the exterior of the branch and this was done from the Beige Group to the Beige Bank and one of the exterior looks which is a large space was a large coal pot with a big saucepan and the other was a mortar and a pistol and a fufu pot and a spoon and so we had to go into the bush to get wood to mold that picture you see there,” she explained.
Find attached the Cross-Examination of DW4 by the Prosecution
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Murtala Inusah
