The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has set up a nine-member bipartisan committee to probe the Bank of Ghana’s revocation of licences for UT Bank and uniBank.
This follows a petition to the House by directors of the affected banks through the MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, requesting that Parliament probe reasons leading to the revocation of their licences and restore permission for them to trade.
However, some Majority MPs raised objections over the Speaker’s willingness to admit the petition.
But in a ruling on the issue late Tuesday night, Bagbin said that the petition was in the right direction. Accordingly, he said, he has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu.
Other members include the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, Joe Ghartey, Patrick Boamah, Samuel Atta Akyea, James Avedzi Klutse, Cassiel Ato Forson, Isaac Adongo and Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare.
The petition
The former chief executive officer of the defunct UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, and the owner of collapsed uniBank Ghana Limited, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, petitioned Parliament two weeks ago to investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana in the revocation of their banks’ licences.
They also want Parliament to direct the central bank to restore their licences.
In a petition sighted by Asaaseradio.com, Amoabeng wants Parliament to:
i) Investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Stock Exchange in revoking UT Bank’s licence and delisting the bank without due regard to the rules of administrative justice guaranteed under Article 23 of the 1992 constitution.
ii) Direct the restoration of UT Bank Ltd’s banking licence by the Bank of Ghana and the remedying of harms done the shareholders’ property rights as a result of the conduct of the Bank of Ghana.
Dr Duffuor is seeking the following reliefs from Parliament:
i) Investigate the conduct of the Bank of Ghana in the takeover, appointment of an official administrator for uniBank Ghana Ltd and the circumstances surrounding the revocation of the banking licence of uniBank Ghana Ltd;
ii) Direct the restoration of the banking licence for uniBank Ghana Ltd by the Bank of Ghana and the remedying of the harms done the shareholders’ property rights as a result of the conduct of the Bank of Ghana.
Revocation of licences
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced in August 2018 that it had revoked the licences of five banks and merged them to form Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd.
The banks were uniBank Ghana Ltd, the Royal Bank Ltd, Beige Bank Ltd, Sovereign Bank Ltd and Construction Bank Ltd. The BoG also appointed Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as the receiver for the five banks.
Before the amalgamation of the five banks, the central bank had closed down UT and Capital Bank in August 2017.
Reasons for closure
According to the BoG, uniBank was identified during the asset quality review update exercise in 2016 as significantly undercapitalised and beyond rehabilitation.
“Shareholders, related and connected parties had taken amounts totalling GHC3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the bank’s loan portfolio,” said the central bank in 2018.
“In addition, amounts totalling GHC1.6 billion had been granted to shareholders, related and connected parties in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930.
“Altogether, shareholders, related and connected parties of uniBank had taken out an amount of GHC5.3 billion from the bank, constituting 75% of total assets of the bank,” the BoG explained
Of UT Bank, the Bank of Ghana said in a press release: “This action has become necessary due to severe impairment of their capital.”
Philip Asiawo
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