Banking Consultant and Financial Analyst, Dr. Richmond Atuahene, has indicated that the forced resignation of the former Board Chairman of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II alone is not enough.
The Kwahumanhene, who until recent days was the Board Chair of ADB, was directed by the Bank of Ghana to resign from his position following an accusation of misconduct and extortion levelled against him by a businessman.
Director of PRABHAT Trading Limited, Collins Darkwah Aboagye in a petition to the President alleged that the then board chair used his influence to facilitate a loan of GH₵ 12 million from the bank of which he took GH₵ 2 million a loan. Daasebre is also alleged to have earlier taken GH₵ 50,000 as a facilitation fee.
After the issues escalated, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in a letter dated October 10, 2024, directed the board chair to resign of which he complied.
But Dr. Richmond Atuahene insists that the central bank’s directive failed to address a very important issue of “what next?”
The Banking Consultant told The High Street Journal that asking the embattled Omanhene to resign alone is not enough to address the issue. He says the directive failed to announce measures taken to investigate the damning allegations.
He believes the issues demand a full-scale investigation either by the Office of the Special Prosecutor or any other body with the capacity to investigate such matters.
“It is not good just telling the man to resign. No, if you play football and the referee shows you a red card, you know you are suspended for two or three matches. That is your punishment and not just you getting out of the team. I was expecting that they should have said something. Are we investigating and possibly recommending to OSP or somebody to investigate?” he maintained.
Dr. Atuahene stressed that a thorough investigation will serve at least two purposes. The first is that it will enable the state to uncover circumstances leading to the incident and also institute punitive sanctions if found guilty to serve as a deterrent to others.
Secondly, he says such investigation will also help to establish the veracity of the alleged payments and also ensure that the victim receives his money if indeed the monies were paid.
He said, “Because if you tell the man to go and he moves on, is he [the complainant] going to get his money back? How is he going to get his 2 Million back if he actually paid? It should have gone further to say that we are sending investigators or we are sending the OSP or whoever to investigate and if we find the culprit and we think it is a sanctionable offence, then we sanction the person.”
Source:thehighstreetjournal.com