The government and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are being urged by the Progressive People's Party (PPP) to reimburse all impacted clients of the BlackShield/Gold Coast Fund Management Company right now.
Recall that the government, acting through the SEC, cancelled GCFM's licence in November 2019.
Prior to the revocation, GCFM proposed to the government that the corporation be given a three-year timeframe in which to compensate all impacted consumers under a new fund management structure named Cardinal Fund.
This request by the GCFM/BlackShield owners and management was categorically turned down, and the government pledged to reimburse the affected clients following the revocation.
"It is outrageous that the government has refused to reimburse the affected consumers three years after the revocation, and there are ongoing protests everywhere," due to the significant negative effects this government action has had on the public.
We are also interested in the whereabouts of the 3.1 billion Ghana Cedis and 5.5 billion Ghana Cedis money that were approved by the parliament for the payment of consumers of all impacted fund management businesses as a bailout in the 2020 and 2021 budgets, respectively. Keep in mind that the reimbursement of the impacted consumers was not subject to any limitations as part of this bailout. Based on that, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), categorically stated the following in a press release on September 2, 2020: "The SEC reiterates that there is no plan to exclude any group of customers, and as such, the SEC does not consider any such plan to exist.
Additionally, as stated in our most recent press release, the government's rescue will be implemented in stages.
"We call for an explanation of what transpired with this agreement. According to a statement from the PPP, "We feel that the consumers deserve more under this arrangement and that the government should immediately fulfil its commitment by compensating the affected customers because our taxes have been collected for this purpose.
It said, "It is vital to highlight that there is no justification for government to delay paying consumers until a liquidation order for BlackShield/Gold Coast assets is granted, as the government would have us think. Because owners of these financial institutions have a separate agreement with banks involved in the same financial sector clean-up initiative.
"However, clients are getting compensated. Additionally, according to agreements signed by clients of affected fund management firms whose funds have been validated, they are no longer clients of GCFM/BlackShield and are instead clients of the Amalgamated Fund, managed by Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd., which guarantees payment for the impacted clients. This new fund manager has been approved by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). What then is the cause of the delay in consumers' payments?
More troublingly, the President, Vice President, Ministers of Finance, Works and Housing, and Roads and Highways have all publicly acknowledged and said that local Ghanaian contractors who took out loans from the impacted fund management businesses are due large sums of money.