Apply the DKM principle in the Menzgold – NDC saga to the government

General News on Thursday, January 17, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-01-17

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as a firearm the government's efforts to help injured customers of distressed gold distribution company, Menzgold Company Limited, to recover their money.

According to the NDC, the recent measures taken by the Office of the Fight against Organized and Economic Crime (EOCO) to freeze the accounts of the Director General of the company, Nana Appiah Mensah, aka NAM 1, leave much to be desired.

At a news conference in Accra, NDC national communications officer Sammy Gyamfi said the government's efforts to convince NAM 1, currently held by the UAE authorities, trials are not enough.

He is therefore convinced that the only way for the government to correct the "greatest financial calamity to the people of Ghana" is to compensate Menzgold's clients.

"We insist that the government has a constitutional obligation to protect its citizens and protect their interests, including their economic rights, at all times. The state has enough power and resources to recover money from Menzgold's customers or to compensate them. This responsibility should not be abdicated as if the government was only a pbadive observer in this whole debacle, "he said.

The government will not pay Menzgold's customers

After Menzgold's grieved customers shouted that the government should intervene in the case, as it did for DKM's customers, the government announced last Thursday that it would use all the powers from the state to ensure that NAM 1 is found and investigated.

She explained, however, that while DKM was licensed by the BoG, Menzgold operated as a trading company and thus outside the scope of the regulator's intervention.

But the NDC believes that "there is no material distinction between the DKM case and the present Menzgold case".

Describing the government's position as hypocritical and double standard, Gyamfi noted that, in accordance with the DKM principle, the government should badume its responsibility and recover the money from Menzgold's customers for them or theirs. pay the same thing.

"Just as DKM was licensed by BOG, Menzgold was also registered by the Registrar General and the Ghana Minerals Commission. Both cases concern two registered and duly licensed business entities, regulated by state institutions, which pay taxes to the state and which, in one way or another, have violated the conditions of their licenses. The Akufo-Addo government must therefore be consistent and apply the same stance that it adopted on the DKM case in 2016 (the "DKM principle") in this Menzgold saga. "