SEC validation exercise to pay investors ‘biggest lie of the century’ – Adongo

Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, has questioned the Securities and Exchanges Commission’s mandate to ask affected customers of closed down fund management companies to partake in a validation exercise to claim part of their locked-up funds.

Mr. Adongo argues that SEC’s mandate ends after the revocation of the licenses of the fund management companies.

Speaking at a public forum on the 2020 budget, the Bolgatanga Central MP said there is no money to pay the affected investors.

“After revoking the licenses, they then set out to do a PR job. They informed everybody that after they had revoked the license, they can go to the CBG branches to fill the forms and collect their monies. That is the biggest lie of the century. Lawyers will tell you that six hours after the licenses have been revoked, it ends there and they only report it to the Registrar General to undertake the rest of the processes for the court to appoint an official liquidator. So they can’t even access the system let alone validate anybody to pay their claims.”

“SEC says they are apologizing. They are not apologizing; they are just buying time because there is no money”, he added.

Many investors of the collapsed fund management companies are this week going through a process to validate their documents to enable them to receive part payment as directed by SEC.

However, some customers in the Northern Region have been left stranded three consecutive days at the Consolidated Bank Ghana branch in Tamale as no SEC official was present.

SEC had explained on Tuesday that the two-days delay was caused by logistical constraints, and that validation was to start nationwide on Wednesday.

Revocation and validation

Weeks ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.

On the back of this, SEC selected branches of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG) to receive claims from clients who have their funds locked up at the affected companies.

The banks were tasked to accept relevant documents for the validation of the investment claims.

According to SEC, the said branches serving as agents were authorized “to ascertain and validate details of investors and their investments with these institutions at the time of the revocation to facilitate the administration of the Government pay-out of a capped amount to affected investors.”

It also advised customers not to engage in panic withdrawals but rather educate themselves and do the needful.

“In the interim we urge all investors to remain calm, gather all receipts, statements and any other documentation related to their investment with the affected institutions. There is also no need for any panic withdrawals on the firms whose licenses are intact and not on the revocation list. A list of firms whose licenses have not been revoked can be found on the SEC website (www.sec.gov.gh)”.

Source: Ghana|Citi News