Ghanaians Should Not Bear GH¢2B UT, Capital Bank Cost – Ato Forson

Ranking member of the Finance Committee in Parliament and Former Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson has revealed that ordinary tax payers are to bear the cost for collapse of Capital and UT Banks.

This he said was unfair and unacceptable adding that the owners of the bank should be held responsible and certainly not the state.

It is for this reason that the Minority in Parliament has requested the Finance Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to provide technical details relating to Capital and UT Banks’ takeover by GCB.

Breaking the news to Parliamentary press corps on Wednesday, Ato Forson explained that “We are asking for clarity in the provision of certain information that we deemed outstanding, relating to the two banks that were liquidated of which the central bank signed and purchased an assumption transaction with GCB.

“As we speak, the public does not know anything about it. We have read from an IMF document that says that the government of Ghana represented by the Ministry of Finance is going to arrange some bond issuance, about one percent of GDP which is about GH¢1.6 to 2 billion to defray the cost relating to the collapse of the two banks.”

“The argument is that who is going to pay? Is it going to be a public debt? The bond is going to be serviced through the consolidated fund and I know that as we speak, plans are far advanced, they’ve completed the discussion on the debt and it has come to about,” he added.

Another technical issue the Minority members are demanding clarity on is the cut-off rules as enshrined in the public financial management act, and the financial administration regulation. they said had been adjusted.

Wrong Precedent

If the plan to issue the bond of a whooping GHc2 billion falls through, it would serve as a bad precedent for financial management, Ato Forson said.

“If care is not taken we would end up setting a wrong precedent for any Tom, Dick and Harry to set up a bank, run it down at any cost, and pass it on to the state for the state to bear the cost,” he said.

Ato Forson continued: “There are standard practices…investigations should be conducted on what led to the collapse of the banks and after that is anyone is found to do something that actually that caused the bank to collapse, they have to cease those assets, sell them and use them to defray the cost.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]