Stealing & murders hit Bawumia

It has emerged that a whopping ¢234.15 billion taxpayer’s money got missing at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in 2007 under the watchful eyes of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Vice-Presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia and his former boss Dr. Paul Acquah during the famous re-denomination of the cedi.

This money was taken away from BoG vaults on May 28, 2007 without the knowledge of the Vaults Manager at the time, shockingly, the officer was rather sacked after realizing the daylight thievery and protesting to the management led ex-Governor Dr. Acquah and Dr. Bawumia, his deputy.

From Ghana Commercial Bank Head Office, a total of ¢83.73 billion went missing. At Apex Bank Head Office, an amount of ¢95.25 billion could not be traced. Furthermore, at the Apex Bank, Takoradi in the Western Region, a total amount of ¢55.15 billion also mysteriously vanished into thin air.

These damning revelations were made in a letter written by a senior Manager (name withheld) to the Human Resource (HR) Department in July 30, 2007 and have been published in a book titled “Lest We Forget! – NPP The Looting Brigade” by National Democratic Congress (NDC) group, Forum for Setting the Records Straight.

In the letter, the manager revealed that, an amount of ¢44.0 billion old cedis was taken away from BoG to Kade in the Eastern Region without the consent of his boss, the Vaults Manager.

The ex-officer further revealed that, “on July 27, 2007, I had a hint that there was shredding going on at Kade. I quickly made enquiry from the General Services Complex Vaults and learnt that the amount involved in the shredding exercise was around ¢44.0 billion”.

According to the manager, this development at the time made “balancing of the Vault Books very difficult. We find it very difficult to balance the June 30, 2007 books”.

From pages 44 to 47, the ex-Vault Manager’s letter cited for instance that “Boxes of notes in ¢20,000, ¢10,000, ¢5, 000, ¢2,000 and ¢1,000 denominations were moved from the General Services Complex Vaults without my knowledge as Vault Manager to GCB and Apex Bank”.

The chapter is titled “Plain Stealing At The Bank of Ghana –Bawumia was There”.

The book, mentioned in passing 2007 two mysterious murders over the re-denomination exercise. The Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Commercial (Operations) Bank, Mr. Roko Frempong, who is said to have objected to the manner in which the exercise was being carried out, and the assassination of the Head of Security of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Arizona Stephen Donkor.

Both gentlemen, were said to have taken strong exceptions to the introductions and disposal of the new and old cedi notes respectively. They were gunned in similar function and till date nobody has been arrested, prosecuted and jailed.

The letter said, “It was worrying to know that the Vault Manager was not aware. My boss only rang to inform me in the house that she would be absent the next day without telling me the reason”.

According to the letter, the “Vault Manager was not involved in the distribution of the Ghana Cedi (Notes and Coins) neither had he (Vault Manager) been given training, both local and foreign, in connection with the redenomination exercise except being a manager of the Logistic Committee even though the Vault Manager takes delivery of the imported Cedi (Notes and Coins) at both the Kotoka International Airport and the Tema Habour”.

“I nearly lost my life in an Aircraft taking delivery of Ghana Coins. To date none of the Branches, Agencies and the Commercial Banks who received the imprest in respect of the Ghana Cedis (Notes and Coins) accounts has been debited due to non availability of proper documentations to effect entries at both Issue and Banking Department. In some cases, waybills were issued to the Branches, Agencies and the Commercial Banks without values”, the manager said.

The manager disclosed that the vaults were broken, exposing monies to the public from Monday to Friday, without the knowledge of the Vault Manager.

In May 2007 for instance, the manager indicated in his letter to the HR that “Contractors engaged by the Bank to refurbish the Complex Vaults broke into Vault five where the bulk of coins are without the Vault Manager’s knowledge and the coins were exposed from Monday to Friday”.

He indicated that, the “Vault Manager always take instructions from the Head of Issue through my assistant, Mr. (name withheld) and I am made to feel that we have two (2) Vault Managers and the other one is preferred”.

The 96-page book was last Monday, launched at the International Conference Centre, Accra by Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Kobby Acheampong, Fiifi Kwetey – Deputy Minister, Finance, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah – Deputy Minister, Local Government & Rural Development and Dr. Tony Aidoo – Head of Policy Monitoring & Evaluation, who chaired the event.