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General News on Thursday, January 17, 2019
Source: clbadfmonline.com
2019-01-17
Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Johnson P. Asiama
Dr. Johnson P. Asiama, former second deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, publicly revealed, for the first time, the circumstances surrounding his exit from the central bank following the election of Nana Akufo-Addo to the Presidency.
Dr. Asiama, appointed by the Mahama administration, chose to take his accumulated leave in December 2017, which was part of his exit plan.
Its mandate was to be completed in April 2020.
Dr. Asiama's resignation comes nine months after the resignation of his former leader, Dr. Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku, from his governorship shortly after the Akufo-Addo government came to power.
Explaining for the first time why he resigned from the central bank, Asiama said in a press release issued Wednesday, January 16, 2019, in which he mainly refuted the allegations of the third vice-president of the ruling party, Michael Omari Wadie , which linked it to the Mmenzgold saga, that: "The Minister of Finance, the Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta. And the reason he gave me that day, is that the president wanted to designate his own person for me. It never had anything to do with Menzgold. The rest belongs to history, "he said.
Read the full statement of Dr. Johnson P. Asiama below:
RE: DECLARATIONS WITHOUT RECOGNITION BY MR OMARIE WADIE, THIRD NATIONAL VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NPP, ON JOY NEWS, WHO LINKS ME, JOHNSON P. ASIAMA (DR.) IN QUESTION MENZGOLD
My attention has just been drawn to a roundtable that was held on JoyNews Live around 6:30 pm today (January 16, 2019). During the discussion, Mr. Omarie Wadie, 3rd Vice-President of the NPP, was quoted as saying that I, Johnson P. Asiama (Dr.), former 2nd Vice Governor of the Bank of Ghana, had had to resign because of my participation in MENZGOLD. . I wish to categorically deny this perverse badertion as an attempt to harm my reputation for any reason. Mr. Wadie went on to say that I was becoming the vice-presidential candidate for the NDC flag bearer. It's also a palpable lie, that the gentleman is known to engage all the time.
I have referred the case to my lawyers and we will follow up on the letter to seek redress in court. I strongly wish to warn Mr. Omarie Waadie not to involve me in the kind of dirty politics and gross behavior in which he behaves. It is rather damaging to his party and I hope the NPP leadership will call him command. I have absolutely no political ambition at the moment, unlike the unfortunate statements he made about me.
As a senior official, I hesitate to speak openly about such things, but I am obliged, given the circumstances, to explain the problems, especially my resignation, for the sake of clarity.
The Minister of Finance, the Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, and the reason he gave me that day was that the president wanted to name his own person for me. It never had anything to do with Menzgold. The rest is history. So I want to say the following:
1. Somewhere around the month of August 2017, I led a team of Bank of Ghana staff to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts to answer some of the issues raised in the 2016 Auditor General's Report. . The report had nothing to do with MENZGOLD.
2. However, during the deliberations, a Member asked about the status of MENZGOLD and asked if we were regulating their activities. I took the time to explain at the meeting that we were not regulating MENZGOLD and that we had not allowed them to accept deposits from the public. Therefore, the Bank of Ghana can not be held responsible to anyone. I also explained that they had a license issued by the Minerals Commission (and PMMC) to buy and export gold, so we could not storm their premises to lock them up.
3. I was then the governor in charge of the supervisory department of the other financial institutions (OFSD) which regulated the microfinance institutions.
4. About a week later, I convened a meeting with the leaders of other regulatory agencies (PMMC, Minerals Commission, Securities and Security Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources) and we took a number of decisions to solve the MENZGOLD problem. there were sudden changes in leadership in the three (3) institutions (SEC, Minerals Commission and PMMC) during the same week and I decided to resume the meeting at a later date.
5. I then asked to meet MENZGOLD. Their lawyer and two other staff members came to my office. During the discussions, I realized that they did not seem to understand what they were doing. I took the time to explain to them that the products they offered (with the exception of gold exports) were all related to Ponzi schemes.
6. At the end of the meeting, they understood and they called on me to help them restructure so that BoG could regulate them. I told them that they had to apply for a financial institution license (at a minimum) before they could hire them. In the meantime, I told them to stop the Bullion Banking products and to advertise in the newspapers for that purpose, which they did afterwards.
7. OFSD staff members were present at this meeting and I was informed that they were visiting the company and inspecting their coffers. I was particularly interested in the security of the database, drawing lessons from the experience of DKM. Therefore, I told them to make sure that MENZGOLD had backups of data and to obtain copies for our donations. My plan was to check if the value of gold in their coffers was equivalent to the money received by their sister company, BREW MARKETING.
8. Unfortunately, the Minister of Finance called me the same week to announce that the President had decided to replace me by his own person, which I forced him to do. Certainly, if my efforts had continued even after my release, we would have managed to restructure MENZGOLD or resolve them entirely before the end of 2017.
9. Therefore, I wish to emphasize once again that my engagement with the MENZGOLD leadership prior to my departure was in keeping with my responsibilities as supervising governor for OFSD, which oversaw non-bank financial institutions such as microfinance institutions. Obviously, if someone had followed what I had started, we might not be here today.
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