Kofi Adomakoh, GCB Bank MD
GCB BANK Limited (GCB) says its attention has been drawn to a letter dated May 28, 2021 titled – ‘Request to Address Issues of Corruption, Bad Corporate Governance and Selective Application of the Bank’s Policies’.
According to the bank, the letter was posted on a fake and cloned news website and subsequently circulated on social media last week, regarding bad corporate governance and accounting irregularities related to the bank’s loan portfolio.
It said the content of the letter which was authored by a group calling itself “Concerned Staff of GCB” are false, malicious and intended to discredit the board, management and other stakeholders of the bank. The malicious persons tried to imitate the official website of a credible and well-known media house in Ghana.
“The Board and Management of GCB would like to urge its staff, customers, shareholders and the general public to ignore the letter being circulated on social media and other platforms. The Board and Management of GCB will typically not engage in communication with anonymous persons but in the interest of the bank and its reputation we feel obliged to respond to assure our cherished customers, hard working staff and the general public that we remain committed to good corporate governance.
“The Bank has well-structured procedures for escalating issues of concern and for reporting any acts of wrongdoing through a whistle blower policy. The group failed to adhere to the Bank’s internal procedures but rather sought to use malicious means to damage the reputation of the Bank with false information.
“The Bank has an established credit underwriting and approval process that is comparable with international best practice and all credits are subjected to this process for approval. In the administration and monitoring of our loan portfolio, GCB has consistently complied with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Bank of Ghana’s governance and risk management directives. The author of the letter makes reference to related party loans which were duly approved after following the Bank’s internal processes,” it added.
These related party loans were fully disclosed to the relevant authorities in accordance with regulatory requirements and were duly reported in the bank’s 2020 audited financial statements. GCB remains very well capitalised with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) significantly exceeding the minimum regulatory ratio of 13%. As of December 31, 2020 and March 31, 2021, the CAR of the bank was 20.6% and 19.7% respectively.
A Business Desk Report