Bribery Claim Hits Banks

Reliable sources within the banking sector have revealed that managing directors of banks in the country have allegedly bribed independent auditing firms, such as KPMG, Pricewaterhousecoopers (Pwc) and others, over an International Monitoring Fund (IMF) auditing report, which was occasioned by the Bank of Ghana. As part of IMF conditions, the Bank of Ghana is to ensure that all banks provide their financial report to them. However, the IMF, sensing mischief, did direct the BoG to ignore Ghanaian auditors, and rather engage the services of independent auditing firms to do the job. The paper learnt that upon finalization of the report, it was discovered that majority of the banks in the country are in bad state and on the verge of collapse, with others on the way to bankruptcy. It was gathered that the MDs of the banks upon hearing of the contents of the report, hurriedly convened a meeting with the independent auditing firms to massage the report thereby allegedly bribing them in the process. The auditing of the banks started three months ago and thus has become a headache for the Bank of Ghana in releasing the report and its content. The Enquirer gathered that the banks are afraid of writing off bad debts which they have added as part of their assets. The paper can confirm that indeed the MDs of the banks have met the independent auditing firm officials. However, MDs of the banks that the paper spoke to also confirmed having had a meeting with the auditing firms’ officials, but they were quick to deny bribing them to doctor report. When asked about the purpose for the meeting, they declined to comment on the matter further. Meanwhile, industry players are shocked at the development, with some claiming that the bad nature of the banks is the basis for the weakening cedi currency. When the paper contacted KPMG and Pwc about the foregoing issues by email, they both acknowledged receiving the questions about the banks’ audit, but gave no responses to them as of press time. PWC said, “We welcome your comments. Your request/feedback has been routed to the appropriate person. Should you need to reference this in the future we have assigned it the reference number PWC0F9A05DV5. While the KPMG simply said “Your message has been received.”

Source: The Enquirer