Adongo walks out of "rubber stamp" enquiry into collapsed banks

The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo has stormed out of an ongoing probe into circumstances leading to the collapse of seven banks in Ghana. The MP who is on the Parliamentary Committee on Finance told journalists he would not be part of any omission or commission that sought to cover up certain personalities in the crisis that has hit the banking sector. There are concerns more banks, especially indigenous ones, are likely to collapse as their woes are being compounded by the Bank of Ghana’s decision to peg its minimum capital requirement for all commercial banks at 400 million cedis. “I just walked. Listen, this is a rubber stamp process, they will deliver no value and I am not willing to be part of it,” Mr. Adongo told the media immediately he stepped out of the meeting room on Wednesday. The Finance Committee’s sitting began on September 5, 2018. The in camera meeting has been criticised by many who suspect a move by Parliament to cover up the rot in the banking sector. He felt not enough documents have been provided to members of the committee to do a thorough job. For instance, he said, he was yet to receive reports on the about five asset quality reviews done on uniBank, as well as terms of reference given to KPMG. He also mentioned among others that the committee is not privy to the contract the central bank signed with Boulders, asking “why should I sit in that meeting, I don’t take part in rubber stamp meetings”. Read: Occupy Ghana demand public hearing of seven collapsed banks The Bank of Ghana in August 2017 approved a Purchase and Assumption transaction allowing GCB Bank Ltd to take over all deposits and selected assets of UT Bank Ltd and Capital Bank Ltd. Read: GCB Bank takes over UT Bank and Capital Bank A year later, the Bank of Ghana again established the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited to take over the assets of five banks: Beige Bank, Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank and UniBank, said to have been plunged into a liquidity crunch. Read: BoG establishes Consolidated Bank for 5 distressed banks By Isaac Essel | editors.3news.com | Ghana