Governance expert and President of IMANI Ghana, Mr Franklin Cudjoe has called on the officials of Bank of Ghana to refund the GHC60.8 billion loss they made in 2022.
According to the President of IMANI Ghana, there is a law that bars the central bank from undertaking expenditure that exceed 5% of its total revenue of the previous fiscal year, yet the officials of the Bank decided to break the law. Hence, they should be surcharged with the lost amount.
Speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight on 8th August, 2023, Mr Cudjoe added that accountability is not just about resigning, but paying back our monies.
“I would call for a refund, probably a significant amount of refund to the state by these bank officials. Just calling for a resignation is not enough.”
Mr. Cudjoe said this in reaction to calls by the Minority in Parliament for the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison and his two deputies to resign for supervising the loss recorded in the 2022 financial statement.
Mr. Cudjoe noted that, “I am sure their salaries, emoluments have been paid with their pensions secured, so why should people’s money go to waste. The Minority calling for a resignation is not even enough. They should pay a part of the loss. They should be made to pay significant portions of the money’.
He contended that the explanation by officials of the Bank that their loss was as a result of loans given to the Government of Ghana and the current Domestic Debt Exchange Program, is not tenable.
“One thing I don’t understand is that the central bank says it is not going to lend to government more than a percentage, that was what the law said, yet they broke it. So, what is the memorandum being signed for. Besides the memorandum is even annoying and we are not kids to sin, repent and say you will sin no more. There is a clear law, you decide to break it with so much impunity, you decide to break the financial code,” Mr. Cudjoe complained.
The President of Imani Africa added that if owners of defunct Capital Bank are facing charges for similar offences, then for losing GHC60 billion, officials of the Bank of Ghana cannot be left go scot-free while others get punished.
“We are still suffering as a result of the Domestic Debt Exchange Program, but I am sure we can’t just waste money like that… You should not have done that and it should have even been done within the law,” he insisted.
The Bank of Ghana reported a Loss of GHC 60.8 billion in its 2022 fiscal report.
The Bank said this is due to the impairment of the Government of Ghana’s securities holdings of ¢48.45 billion, impairment of loans and advances granted to quasi-government and financial institutions amounting to ¢6.12 billion and the depreciation of the local currency resulting in net exchange loss of ¢5.27 billion.
The loss according to the Bank of Ghana was occasioned by the Government of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Program.
By Clara Boadi Konadu