Probe ADB’s Stephen Kpordzih – UNICOF

The Union of Commerce, Industry and Finance workers (UNICOF) has called for a probe into the tenure of the resigned managing director of the Agricultural Development Bank.

Mr. Stephen Kpordzih resigned from the agriculture inclined bank on January 8, 2016.

He had, until his resignation, been accused of mismanaging the bank by the UNICOF.

In a resignation letter, the embattled MD said “In view of the expiration of the extension of my contract of employment on January 31, 2016, I write to notify you of my decision not to seek any further extension.

“I would therefore like to proceed on leave effective January 11, 2016”.

But UNICOF in a statement said “Mr. Kpordzih took over at a time in 2009 when the Bank was amongst the top-five performing banks and left us struggling to latch on to a disgraceful near bottom in the league of 28 commercial banks in the country”.

Below are details of the statement by UNICOF

CONDUCT FORENSIC AUDIT INTO THE TENURE OF MR. STEPHEN KPORDZIH AS MD OF ADB
The struggle to restore order in the corporate governance structure at the Bank begun exactly on Thursday, April 23, 2015. Finally, our anchor demand has been met with the exit on Monday, January 11, 2016 of Mr. Stephen Kpordzih, former Managing Director, whose management style had led to an irreparable dip in the fortunes and brand of the Bank. We wish to commend the authorities for listening to the voices of the masses.

With the exit of Mr. Kpordzih, we think it is only proper and fair to humbly ask for the following:

1.The full audit report by Bank of Ghana on the allegations levelled against Mr. Kpordzih and his management team should be published.

2.The status of the ADB House should be published.

3.A forensic audit should be conducted into the tenure of Mr. Kpordzih.

4.A substantive Managing Director should be named with despatch to restore investor confidence.

5.An immediate reversal of the mass transfers of unionised staff members and the needless promotions of the former MD’s favourites.

6.The veil on the ownership of the Accra Financial Centre (AFC) should be lifted.

Following agitations against the departed MD in particular and his management team in general, the MD sought to go after anybody who did not worship him or join his management sponsored ‘union’. In doing this, the management took its eyes off the core business of banking and allowed almost all sectors of the Bank to deteriorate. Mr. Kpordzih took over at a time in 2009 when the Bank was amongst the top-five performing banks and left us struggling to latch on to a disgraceful near bottom in the league of 28 commercial banks in the country.

The former MD is always boasting about having transformed the Bank and positioned it very well to be able to compete. He also consistently claims that he moved the Bank from a previous 50-networked branches to a current 78 branches. He also pushed the rebranding of the Bank. But banking is not just about aesthetics or ambiance. Banking is really about having a solid liquidity position and serving the needed customer segments to be able to return enough equity to your investors. In respect of the improved branch network, many of the branches were opened at his whim and have never been profitable since their inception. In fact, the business case does not justify the opening of branches in some of the areas at all. Banking is no longer being delivered solely from brick and mortar locations but rather from a bouquet, combining branch networks, electronic, agency banking and other tactical platforms, which all combine to provide the needed profitability. So we cannot be clapping for him for taking the Bank from a profitable position and leaving it in a terrible, loss-making position.

In respect of selling off or planning to sell off the ADB House, our bona fide head office only to go and rent the most expensive office destination in Accra, we can now say for sure that the move could only have been motivated by personal or sectarian interests and not the greater good. The payment of almost GHC9 million in rent for every quarter by the Bank makes no business sense whatsoever and should be reversed with immediate effect. Just before his departure, Mr. Kpordzih openly confessed to his lieutenants that the rent on the AFC is too much and actually tasked the business services department to initiate moves to relocate all the departments on the first floor, which could probably lead to a reduction in the rent payable – a clear vindication of the unions’ position that the rent was simply needless. Even the high street multinational banks in the country which have been recording consistently high profit figures over the years would not make this type of decision. We also think that it is anti-competition and improper for the Bank to be housed in the same building with another commercial bank.

Relative to the dismissed union leaders of the Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) and the interdicted leaders of the Local Union (LU) of the Bank, while doing all this, Mr. Kpordzih and his team forgot that they were there to shore up the fortunes of the Bank. They totally ignored the core business of banking and went on a victimisation spree, while the business suffered. Many of the dismissed or interdicted leaders were branch managers or core operations officers at the Bank. Others who also sympathised with the unions were simply shoved aside and replaced with surrogates or purely unqualified and incompetent hands.

In fact, if branch-based or brick and mortar banking is anything to go by then Mr. Kpordzih and his group have failed woefully because, due to his hatred for dissent and objectivity, he has removed many branch managers and branch staff who have been key to the Bank’s operations over the years. His toxic and alienating business strategy has left at least half (39) of our 78 branches currently without substantive branch and operations managers.

Indeed, when he realised that his end had come, he promoted his Human Resource Manager, Akwelley Adoley Bulley to the rank which is equal to that of a deputy managing director at the Bank and together, they removed all strategic unit heads and other critical departmental staff and replaced them with their incompetent sympathisers and gossips. A classic example was his unilateral redundancy of the former Executive Director, Abdul Samed Iddrisu under the flimsy alibi of restructuring. How could the Executive Director who was supposed to be a part of the top management committee which worked on the supposed ‘restructuring’ become a victim of the same exercise? Mr. Kpordzih has been restructuring since he came to the Bank seven years ago but only ended up making the Bank walk on its head. He never got any strategy right because he has always run the Bank on his emotions.

Again, we also call for the immediate reversal of the retributive mass transfers to restore order to allow the Bank to work again. His vindictive policies have created a schism between the over 1,000- plus staff in the employ of the Bank and those recruited since his assumption of office. This has created a tensed and polluted work atmosphere, which is in sharp contrast to the camaraderie that existed amongst staff of the Bank before he assumed office.

Confidence in the Bank has been waning fast, while the departed MD and his friends postured like all was rosy at the Bank. We are therefore humbly appealing to the authorities to speed up the appointment of the substantive head and a possible deputy head to quickly help, in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders to restore the Bank to its core mandate of bringing development banking to our esteemed customers.