The opposition National Democratic Congress Parliamentary Candidate for Abura Asebu Kwamankese, and Aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has chastised the New Patriotic Party administration for lacking prudence in the management of the financial sector clean-up exercise.
Commenting on the imprisonment sentence of the former Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Capital Bank, Mr. Ato Essien, the former Deputy Minister of Communications criticized President Akuffo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party administration for arbitrarily collapsing some of the banks without any justifiable reasons under the guise of the financial sector clean-up exercise.
According to him, there was enough evidence that the government could have saved those banks to protect citizens’ investments than how the government undertook the whole exercise to collapse the banks.
He noted that the amount of money that the government needed to save those banks was less than the money the government used to collapse the banks, a situation, he described as very unfortunate.
“The prosecution notwithstanding does not excuse the government from the way it has handled this whole banking sector clean-up exercise. It is possible to hold those who may have violated the law and acted contrarily in the interest of the state whilst saving the banks themselves to have avoided all the problems we have had. We do know that an asset quality review conducted in 2016 yearly before the NDC left power showed that, several banks, at least 9 of them were in distress.
“But what was required to bring them back to the position of financial health was something in the GHS 9 billion. That arrangement was going to ensure that the state recovers such investment back after proper management practices. The Akuffo Addo/Bawumia government took over in a manner mirrored in some form of vindictiveness, selectively decided to collapse some of the banks and said that they had spent a colossal GHS 25billion doing so at a time when there was a report that less than that amount could save those banks”.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu
Prosecution Of Others Involved In Wrongdoing
Again, Mr Kwakye Ofosu questioned the government’s failure to instigate prosecution against other individuals who were equally directly or indirectly involved in the collapse of the banks.
The former Deputy Minister of Communications thus charged the government to subject others who were found culpable in the financial sector clean-up exercise to the laws of Ghana to avoid selective application of justice.
“It appears the right thing to do if somebody has engaged in the violation of the law in a manner that has created difficulties for the state, the state certainly has the right and the responsibilities to ensure that such ill is corrected.
“So in terms of the processes, there cannot be any difficulty in it except that there have been some memos that other more prominent members of the society who I believed have had a part in this have been left off the hook while some less prominent persons have been made scapegoat in this whole endeavour. Those in authority need to do what is right to ensure that there is equity and fairness in the way that these matters are addressed”.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu
However, private legal practitioner, Lawyer Martin Kpebu has suggested that the state should allow the Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Capital Bank. Mr. Ato Essien to pay for his debt instead of committing him to imprisonment.
According to him, the state and the citizens of Ghana would not benefit from Mr Ato Essien’s imprisonment in any way, hence the need for the state to adopt financial restitution over his imprisonment.
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