The government and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have received another request from the Progressive People's Party (PPP) to reimburse all impacted clients of the BlackShield/Gold Coast Fund Management Company (GCFM) immediately.
The SEC on behalf of the government cancelled GCFM's licence in November 2019. Prior to the revocation, GCFM proposed to the government that it be given three years to refund all impacted clients through the use of a new fund management system named Cardinal Fund.
The government vowed to reimburse the affected clients following the revocation, categorically rejecting the proposal made by the owners and management of GCFM/BlackShield.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, PPP Director of Communications Felix Mantey said it was alarming that three years after the revocation, the government had still not paid the impacted consumers and that there were still ongoing protests calling for the release of the monies that had been locked away.
Inquiring about the location of the GH 3.1 billion and GH 5.5 billion money allocated by Parliament in the respective 2020 and 2021 budgets for the payment of consumers of all impacted fund management organisations as a bailout, he added, "We are also wondering and asking the administration."
Remember that the payment of the impacted consumers was not subject to any terms as part of the bailout, he said.
According to Mr. Mantey, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director General, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, categorically stated in a press release on September 2, 2020 that "the SEC reiterates that there is no plan to exclude any group of customers, and as indicated in our last press release, the roll-out of the government's bailout will be done in phases" based on the funds that had been approved.
Explanation
As a result, the PPP requested an explanation of what happened to the arrangement that the SEC Director General had emphasised.
The government should immediately fulfil its promise by compensating the affected consumers since our taxes have been collected for this purpose, and in our opinion the customers deserve more in this arrangement.
He asserted that there was no justification for the government holding off on paying consumers until a liquidation order for the assets of BlackShield/Gold Coast was issued.
He also noted that, following the financial sector clean-up, the owners of the banks are contesting in court the Bank of Ghana's and the Receiver's decision to revoke their licences.
According to him, agreements signed by customers of affected fund management companies whose funds were validated show that they are no longer customers of GCFM/BlackShield and are instead customers of the Amalgamated Fund, managed by the Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd (GCB), which guarantees payment for the affected customers. This fund manager is approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Worrying
More concerning, according to Mr. Mantey, is the fact that the President, the Vice-President, the Minister of Finance, the Ministers of Works and Housing, as well as the Minister of Roads and Highways, have all publicly acknowledged and stated that local Ghanaian contractors who took out loans from the impacted fund management companies are owed sizeable sums of money.
He charged that Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, had used his discretion in choosing which contractors should be paid and which ones should not, as well as in using financial institutions to pay some contractors without consulting the original lenders.
This might prevent the original lenders from receiving monies that are owed to them and is likely to result in significant judgement debts and financial losses for the state.