The Co-Chair of the Citizen Movement Against Corruption says issues surrounding the alleged transfer of ₵52.5billion tax revenue from the GCB Bank to unknown accounts are fishy and intriguing.
Edem Senanu said the reactions of the Audit Service and the GCB Bank following the leaking of the document that suggested that tax revenue had been diverted from the bank to unknown accounts raises lots of questions.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsnight, he said the Audit Service should be providing more information concerning the nature of the tax revenue transfer to provide clarity on the matter.
“No, there cannot be a difficulty with establishing where monies were transferred to if Ghana Commercial Bank truly transferred those amounts.
"In fact, all of this is very intriguing. On one hand, Audit Service says they’re satisfied, they’re pursuing, they’ve been able to trace some, and referring to the letter in the public space, suggesting that that letter is legitimate and then Ghana Commercial Bank says that no, that’s a doctored letter," he said.
He added, “That makes all of this very intriguing and fishy. And so there are more questions than answers and ideally we should be hearing from the Auditor General’s department as to what exactly has transpired here in addition to what the Audit Service is saying and Ghana Commercial Bank is saying.”
His comments follow the leaking of a letter currently circulating on social media with the caption, ‘Audit Service Reports of ¢52.5 billion transferred from GCB Bank to unknown sources.’
The GCB Bank Limited (GCB) quickly came out to fight off the allegations stating that the content of the publication is false and mischievously designed to discredit the bank.
“We hereby deny the allegations that the GCB has effected unauthorised transfers. We have further assured all our stakeholders that GCB as a bank of international repute, conducts its activities in line with sound banking principles,” the bank said in a press statement.
They stated that the content of the letter was doctored and should be ignored.
However, the Audit Service clarified that the leaked letter is only a portion of the document in an ongoing audit exercise sanctioned by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to confirm the transfer of receipts from various transit accounts maintained by commercial banks into the respective Bank of Ghana Hold Accounts from 2015 to date.
But reacting to the GCB’s statement, Edem Senanu stated that it casts a shadow of doubt on the Audit Service’s response to the leaked document.
“That’s what makes it all the more intriguing. I mean you have a response from the audit service saying that the letter in the public domain is one of their letters.
"It is true there these sums, they’ve pursued these sums satisfactorily and then Ghana Commercial Bank says no, this is not the case, that is a doctored letter. So who actually is telling us the truth?” he said.
He, however, stated that the issue cannot yet be classified as a corruption case, due to a lack of evidence.
But he has called on the Audit Service to release the identities of the owners of the unknown accounts and the official who had directed the transfer of the funds to the accounts.
“Well, I will not use the word corruption, which is the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. I mean there is no clear evidence at the moment.
"But if it is fishy, and if the identities of those whose accounts this sum, this ¢52.5 billion can be established, and under whose directives those formally generated directives allowed them to do so, then we can bring some clarity to it.
“So there is a lot more information that should be provided and the letter from the Audit Service does not in any way provide us with any clarity nor establish the kind of assurance they want to give us as Ghanaians that everything is under control. Certainly not.”
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