Attorney General and Minister for Justice says the dockets for the prosecution of the CEO of the defunct Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah is almost ready.
Godfred Yeboah Dame said “painstaking investigations” went into the building of the dockets.
“Painstaking investigations, dockets of the financial crime, are almost ready for the prosecution to commence in earnest.”
“The Office of Attorney General is prosecuting other cases including stealing, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering,” he said.
Mr Dame made this known when he spoke on the financial sector crisis in Ghana at Cambridge University on Monday, September 5.
The AG also said the country’s economy has been hit badly by the banking sector crisis and the operations of Ponzi schemes.
He insisted that the financial sector crisis is the “most severe” to have affected the country since independence.
“Between August 2017 and January 2020, Ghana was hit by a severe banking crisis that affected several institutions, and several indigenous banks, as a result of which the central bank ordered a take-over of some of the banks by the Ghana Commercial Bank. The Central bank cited the insolvency of the banks as a significant reason for revoking their license.”
“Five indigenous banks were consolidated to form the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited. A deeper examination of the banking crisis showed poor corporate governance, non-performing loans, breach of directors’ obligations, credit risks, and regulatory lapses were responsible for the vulnerabilities the banks were exposed to.
“Internal auditors who were required to superintend proper accounting practices were complacent and covered up Executive Directors. The recent banking crisis held ramifications for the entire economy. It was the most severe economic crisis to affect Ghana since independence,’ he added.
Recently, the Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO), Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah at a forum stated that his prosecution is becoming difficult due to the lack of relevant laws to support the case.
This generated a public uproar about the commitment of the state to prosecute NAM1.
But the Deputy Minister of Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah downplayed the comments.
He said they do not represent the position of state prosecutors on the case.
