The Auditor General has instructed the Bank of Ghana to close down some twenty of its dormant External Bank Accounts so as to make them more manageable. The A-G has also ordered the Central Bank to write to all foreign correspondent banks to retrieve missing bank statements and ensure that outstanding items are cleared.

These were contained in the Report of the Auditor General on the statement of the Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payment of the Bank of Ghana.

According to the report, most of the foreign bank accounts operated by the Bank of Ghana were dormant with virtually no movement of balances.

The Business and Financial Times newspaper says its enquiries have revealed that most of the external accounts of the Central Bank were opened during the period of Structural Adjustment Programme to channel bilateral grants and aid. The report noted that the review of the BOG reconciliation statement with its corresponding bank accounts showed that bank statements from correspondent banks did not support a number of reconciling items.

It noted that seven of BOG’s external accounts have their bank statements missing. Bank charges and commissions appearing on bank statements could also not be traced to the Central Bank’s ledgers. A lot of unreconciled items remain outstanding because the correspondent banks did not advise the Bank of Ghana on commissions and other charges.