General News of Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-01-09
Deputy Bank of Ghana Governor, Elsie Awadzi
A law lecturer has criticised what he describes as “we are not concerned” posture of the Central Banks’s towards frustrated Menzgold customers.
Justice Srem-Sai who is with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) said he is saddened by the Deputy Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor’s pronouncement that there is nothing the central bank can do for the disgruntled customers.
He told Joy News’ Evans Mensah on Newsnight that at least three state institutions – BoG, Minerals Commission, and Securities and Exchanges Commission(SEC) – are supposed to be working together on the issue and they can work together to resolve the matter.
“Inasmuch as the BoG does not or may not have any responsibility to refund monies to these persons, it does not also mean that the victims are not entitled to any kind of intervention from anyone.
“The Central Bank can help in tracing the monies that were invested…we all know Menzgold is not a bank so definitely whatever money they collected went through some banking institution,” he said.
He said the central bank has all it takes to track the monies and retrieve them.
Justice Sai’s comment follows a demonstration in the Ashanti Region capital of Kumasi on Tuesday by some disappointed investors with the troubled gold dealership company.
They carried placard castigating the owner of the company while asking the government and the BoG to help retrieve their monies.
But the Deputy Governor, Elsie Awadzi said there is nothing the BoG can do for the customers as they were warned of the risk involved in depositing their funds with an unlicensed company.
She said the central bank has been very clear for a long while about the operations of Menzgold being unlicensed.
“We were not responsible for it, and we warned the public at different points in time and we told them if they continue to put their monies there, they do so at their own risk…the matter is in court so I will not comment much on it,” she told Joy News.
However, Justice Srem-Sai disagrees.
According to him, there are two ways the victims may be compensated although they are not likely to get all their monies.
“We may decide that we use taxpayers money to compensate them somehow or use the assets of Menzgold, its partners and associates to pay them their compensation.
“What I expect the Central Bank to do is to collaborate with other regulators like SEC to trace all these assets and also the banks that dealt with them,” he said.
