March 28, 2024

Pru East Constituency Member of Parliament Dr Kwabena Donkor is damning officials of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for the delay in payment of entitlement owed to workers of defunct Capital and UT Banks.

According to him, officials of the BoG did not only “sleep on their jobs” but also benefitted in cash from the mess Capital and UT Banks found themselves in.

He has therefore called on BoG to, without delay, pay entitlements owed to the former workers of the two banks most of whom are now living from hand to mouth.

Last year, the BoG began a house cleaning exercise in the banking sector by taking over two distressed banks- Capital and UT.

The assets of these two banks were handed over to the Ghana Commercial Bank together with the workers, most of whom would later lose their jobs.

The workers were promised their entitlements after the dust on the takeover had settled but after a year nothing has been paid.

Some of the workers have taken to irregular jobs to feed themselves and their families.

A deputy manager in the now-defunct Capital Bank, Raymond Dankwa has taken to the kitchen grilling chicken and meat at events.

He is now the CEO of RaD Kitchen preparing foodstuff for delivery to workers in some financial institutions, Joy News’ Justice Baidoo reported.

Another Branch manager at Capital Bank Edem Ademado, has taken to Uber driving to make ends meet.

Many others are at home looking for where help will come from.

Sadly the woes of these workers will be complicated by the recent BoG decision to collapse five other banks- Sovereign, Royal, Beige, Construction and Unibank which have since been merged into Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd.

The former workers of the UT and Capital Banks are now wondering when their entitlements will be paid, especially with the looming possibility of workers of these five banks also losing their jobs.

Speaking to Joy News on the matter Dr Kwabena Donkor told Emefa Apawu, the BoG has taken too long in paying the entitlements owed to former workers and UT.

“Ghanaian workers for no fault of theirs are being denied their entitlements. The number one culprit in all this is the Bank of Ghana. The BoG as the regulator slept on the job.

“Not only did they sleep but they also made money from the mess and so they should be paying with their jobs and ensuring that the entitlements of workers are paid.

According to him, BoG made at least ¢250m in interest from Capital Bank alone from the liquidity support it gave to the defunct bank.

He said because they were benefitting from the mess they did not take steps to arrest the situation.

“BoG has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure a safe and sane banking system. They failed absolutely. Yet we have not heard of firings at the BoG.

He said the regulators must pay the entitlements owed to workers of the two banks even as they wait for the liquidators to do their work.

 

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