A former President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Ghana and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana, Mike Kofi Afflu, has formally requested the Public Accounts Committee to investigate the transfer of GHC52.5 billion to an undisclosed account in the year 2020.
He indicated that in correspondence dated October 5, 2020, the Audit Service addressed the Managing Director of GCB Bank Plc. Within the letter, the Auditor-General requested the bank’s clarification regarding the rationale behind a transfer of GHC52.5 billion from the bank to an unidentified account.
In a petition dated, August 11, 2023, and addressed to the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and copied to GhanaWeb Business, he stated that “Since then, the Auditor-General has not provided any explanation to the Ghanaian.
Taxpayer to explain:
l. Where the money was transferred to?
2. Who authorized that amount to be transferred by the bank?
3. Into what account was the money transferred?
4. Details of the recipient account and any related issues?”
Part of Afflu’s concerns include the fact the USD GHS average rate for October 2020 was 5.77522.
The amount of GH¢52.5 million was, therefore, equivalent to US$9,090,783 (i.e., $9.1 billion).
According to him, “If this GH¢52.5 billion (from GRA Account) had been transferred to the Bank of Ghana as mandated by Law, Ghana would not have gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the bailout of $3 billion.”
“I am therefore requesting the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of which you are the Chairman, to invite the Auditor-General of Ghana to provide the necessary explanation to your committee and Ghanaians as a whole,” the petition noted.
“We want to know who withdrew that amount of money from the GCB Bank Plc and for what,” he concluded.