Business News of Sunday, 1 February 2015
Source: citifmonline.com
The Ghana Insurers Association (GIA) has expressed worry over the recent case of embezzlement which has rocked SIC.
The state insurer guaranteed an Italconstruct project but the construction company failed to pay its lenders, Ivory Finance.
Ivory Finance subsequently secured a court order, empowering them to access SIC’s bank accounts to take out all monies owed them.
The Deputy Managing Director (Technical) Kwei Mensah Ashidam is currently acting as Managing Director of SIC Insurance following the interdiction of the MD, Doris Awo Nkani
Citi Business News sources say she has been served with a writ of summons.
Aside the interdiction of the Managing Director, two other directors; Musa Abdulai and Ken Acolatse are being investigated by the Police for allegedly embezzling $1.1 million and Ghc700, 000 respectively.
In an exclusive interview with Citi Business News, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Insurers Association, Ivan Avereyire said, due to the magnitude of SIC as a state insurer, the developments in the company if not checked could have damning consequences on the industry.
“SIC is a major player in the industry and for that matter we are all worried but beyond that we hope that the current board and shareholders will take the right steps to try to rectify the situation,’’ he observed.
The GIA CEO also added that the implications of the SIC issues have further reaching consequences as the company has one of the largest numbers in terms of policyholders and employees.
He pointed out that, “if SIC goes under, it is going to be a big problem in the industry as most workers will be unemployed but I hope we never get to that point but we pray the board and management will work quickly to try to resolve the problems in the company.’’
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has directed SIC to submit a comprehensive report on the credit guarantee they did for Italconstruct.
NIC had advised insurance companies to desist from underwriting credit guarantees since that was the preserve of banks.
The Deputy Commissioner of Insurance at the National Insurance Commission (NIC), Simon Davor said they have asked the management of SIC to submit a report on the current happenings at SIC
“If a board or a management of an insurance company decides to underwrite credit guarantees, it is their call, however, if there are problems emanating from the deal, we shall go ahead and apply our regulatory sanctions if need be.’’