A witness in the UT bank collapse case,  Joseph Yeebo Sampana, who is also a treasurer of the Ghana Exim Bank has told an Accra High Court that funds given to UT bank by the Ghana Exim Bank were diverted to the subsidiaries of the bank.

Mr. Sampana’s witness statement filed on June 24, 2020 was admitted as his examination in Chief without objection from all the accused persons.

The Bank of Ghana in 2017 revoked the license of UT Bank for breaching the rules of the Banking Act. The bank was subsequently taken over by state-owned bank GCB Bank.

In his Examination-in-Chief read to the hearing of the court, the witness Mr. Sampana stated that UT Bank was in business with Export Development Agricultural and Investment Fund (EDAIF) before it was converted into Exim Bank by Act 911 in March 2016.

He further stated that EDAIF started doing business with UT Bank when it was one of the Designated Financial Institutions (DFI).

“Based on the approval of Bank of Ghana for Exim Bank to operate as a DFI, Export Development Agricultural and Investment Fund (EDAIF) started giving out loans through UT Bank and when funds were placed with UT Bank, EDAIF was issued certificates of placement by UT Bank”, he said.

He informed the court that, when UT bank was taken over by the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), management of Exim Bank and GCB met and agreed to a proposal that GCB takes over all the investments Exim Bank had with the UT Bank.

He further informed the court that three of Exim’s investments with the UT Bank were consolidated by the GCB and the amount came to ¢25,877,825. Aside from that amount, GCB also took over another investment with an amount of ¢5,133,728.80 which was with UT Holdings.

He further intimated that the amount of ¢5,133,728.80 which was with UT Holdings was an initial investment amount of  ¢4,475,246.05 and this stated investment was with the UT Bank and not UT Holdings.  

Mr. Sampana informed the court that Exim Bank only found out that the said amount had been transferred to UT Holdings at the latter part of 2017 when Exim Bank was issued with a UT Holdings certificate of investment instead of a UT Bank certificate of investment.

During cross examination by Counsel for the 3^rd accused (UT Holdings Limited (UT Holdings) Mr. Sampana informed the court that he had been an employee of Exim Bank for the past 13 years.

He further informed the court that he was a qualified Chartered Accountant with 12 years’ experience.

He stated that he attended University of Ghana and studied Finance and Banking. He further stated that he holds a Masters in Finance, and is a member of ICA Ghana.

He informed the court that UT Bank issued an investment certificate in respect of an amount of ¢4,475,246.05. He further informed the court that an amount of ¢4,703,548.25 was invested on January 30, 2017 and was to mature on May 1, 2017. PW5 stated that the investment of ¢4,475,246.05 was rolled over on its maturity.

“Exim bank realised that their investments with UT Bank had been transferred to UT Holdings after GCB took over UT Bank. He intimated that he did not know when exactly the transfer of Exim Bank’s placement with UT Bank was transferred to UT Holdings”.

Mr. Sampana stated that at the time of takeover by GCB, there was a balance standing as cost because the initial amount was less than that and interest added gave the Exim Bank ¢4,703,548.25 as at August 2017. He further stated that he had an investment certificate showing the lesser amount before the amount appreciated to ¢4,703548.25

The court ordered the witness to produce at the next adjourned date all Exim bank’s roll over certificates in in his possession.

The Case was adjourned to 17^th, 18^th and 19^th October 2023 at 1:00 pm.