CONFUSION ERUPTS @ GCB

… As gov’t galls board over appointment of new MD
Posted: The Chronicle | Tuesday, December 08, 2009

By Charles Takyi Boadu

Credible information reaching The Chronicle indicates that powerbrokers and influence peddlers close to the Presidency, are putting excessive pressure on the government to hand-pick the Managing Director (MD) of Stanbic Bank, Mr. Alhassan Andani, for the position of Managing Director of the nation’s biggest bank, the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), to succeed Lawrence Adu Mante.
A source close to the interviewing panel set up by the Council of State, led by Professor Kofi Awoonor, has confided in The Chronicle that among the three individuals shortlisted out of the seven applicants interviewed, Mr. Andani scored the least points in their grading.

The shortlisted three are Mr. Alhassan Andani of Stanbic Bank, Charles Asare of Ecobank Development Corporation, and Simon Dornoo of Barclays Bank. The paper learnt that Mr. John Kofi Mensah, the Deputy MD of Unibank, was earlier picked by the board to succeed the outgoing MD, but the government’s intervention halted his elevation with the excuse that the interviewing process had not been completed.

The board Chairman and experienced banker, Kojo Thompson of SG-SSB fame, refused to comment on the story when this reporter contacted him on phone. Workers at GCB however consider the maneuverings of the government, as an attempt to usurp and undermine the authority of its board.

It is also said that the government wants to pacify Mr. Andani for not being given the position of Governor of the Central Bank (Bank of Ghana), as well as the top post at the Agricultural Development Bank, when they became vacant.

In the wake of the search for a person to succeed the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah, media speculations bandied the name of Mr. Andani as the government’s choice for the enviable position.

Then out of the blue, came K. B. Amissah-Arthur, a guru in Statistical Economics, to grab the position.

Meanwhile, credible sources at the GCB say its staff is unhappy about the way and manner in which the government is bent on imposing Mr. Andani on their bank, and are kicking heels ready to protest.

The GCB, they are quoted as saying, has a myriad of managerial problems that need a seasoned banker to handle.

The Ghana Commercial Bank is the biggest bank adjudged by total assets, loans and advanced and shareholders’ fund, and came on a close second by deposits at end of 2008.

It recently opened its 153rd branch at Nima, a sprawling suburb of Accra.

The GCB has a 12-member board, with Mr. Kojo Thompson as Chairman, Mr. Lawrence Adu-Mante, Managing Director, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, Deputy Managing Director In-Charge of Operations, and Mr. Samuel Amankwah, Deputy Managing Director In-Charge of Finance

Others include Mr. Fiifi Kwetey (Non-Executive Director), Mr. Lovelace Prempeh (Non-Executive Director), Mr. Samuel Amankwah (Deputy Managing Director - Finance), Dr. Fritz Gokel (Non-Executive Director), Mrs. Charlotte Osei (Non- Executive Director), with Mrs. Adelaide Mary Benneh, Mr. Joshua K. Peprah, Ms. Lauretta Vivian Lamptey and Mr. Elliot Gordor as members.

In a related development, a Ghanaian resident in the heart of the United Kingdom, London, one Phillip Kobina Baidoo Jnr., has suggested the privitisation of GCB.

In his widely circulated feature article titled ‘Ghana Commercial Bank, the elephant in the living room,’ he wrote, “Though I know that the word privatisation is an anathema to a lot of Ghanaian intellectuals that is what I will shout from the rooftops.”

According to him, most people think that the GCB is a private enterprise, but it is a de facto State-Owned Enterprise (SOE), because the government owns 21.36% and SSNIT, which is a government organisation, 29.81%, summing up to 51.17% of GCB’s operations.

“You therefore can see who calls the tune at the stockholders meeting. Ghana Commercial Bank should be fully privatised. For those who think privatisation is bad, I will assure them that there is no better option,” he noted.

He believes privatisation is just like democracy, which Winston Churchill satirically defined as the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.

“The only way we can get the best out of the nation’s resources we have invested into this company, is a complete privatisation of the bank,” he reiterated. In the final analysis, Phillip Kobina Baidoo Jnr. said it was when the management becomes answerable to irate stockholders, who will always demand their pound of flesh, that those at the helm of affairs will sit up to do the right thing.