Unibank Shareholders Demand Kpmg Report

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Shareholders of defunct uniBank are demanding the official report by KPMG on the bank.

The shareholders, in a statement, said they have been denied access to the report by the Bank of Ghana without any reason.

"It is unacceptable for the Bank of Ghana and KPMG to deny shareholders access to the report, even as material in the report has been widely disseminated to discredit uniBank and instigate public contempt and opprobrium against uniBank."

"No opportunity has been provided to the shareholders of uniBank to respond to any purported findings of KPMG and yet they are being tried by the court of public opinion without the full facts of the case," the statement said.

KPMG was appointed the official administrator of uniBank, but the shareholders have raised conflict of interest concerns over the decision.

"The recent appointment of KPMG as the receiver in respect of some assets of uniBank and four other banks shows KPMG seeking to benefit from the report that it provided to the Bank of Ghana through a further paid engagement, a clear conflict of interest situation which does not put KPMG in a good light."

The BoG revoked the license of uniBank on August 1, and the Central bank subsequently created the Consolidated Bank to take over selected assets and liabilities of uniBank, along with four other collapsed banks.

The other banks were Construction Bank, Royal Bank, The Beige Bank, and Sovereign Bank.

The shareholders have stated that they "intend to ensure that the Bank of Ghana provides them with an official copy of the report so as to enable them to address the contents of the report".

What the report said

Among other things, uniBank's struggles were noted as having compromised the savings 370,000 individuals.

uniBank's financial position also presented significant systemic risks to Ghana's financial sector's stability.

Some state owned enterprises are said to be exposed to the bank, which is further said to owe pension funds and non-bank financial institutions to the tune of GHȻ850 million.

uniBank also owes $71.8 million to six international institutions.

There was also seeming mismanagement of resources, according to the document, which said that uniBank before the revocation of its licence had 811 permanent staff, 64 contract staff, 990 outsourced staff and 79 national service staff for a bank with just 54 branches.

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