Money "come for chop" at Bank of Ghana

The Evening News writes that Dr Paul Acquah is missing nothing, as he leaves his plush office in Washington, in the United States as IMF official to take up the post of Governor of Ghana's Central Bank.

“The 63-year-old Acquah, is literally rolling into his new office at the High Street with an accommodation package, which defies the present economic situation of the country”, states the paper.

Furnishing of his official private residence and that of his two Deputies, Advisors and Consultants is said to range from DSTV to garbage bins.

Investigations which the paper claims it has conducted revealed that at a meeting of the top executives of the Bank held on September 12, 2001, management considered a memorandum from the Estate Department on the issue of furnishing official private residences of senior members of staff.

It noted that, the list of standard furnishing of both the official and private residences for the senior staff approved in December 1992, was not detailed enough and as a result, a number of complementary items were left out, creating problems for the Estate Department of the Bank.

The meeting therefore, felt it was necessary to review the specific items to be provided.

According to our investigations, after some discussion, management approved a list of standard furnishing for the residences of the Governor, Deputy Governors, Advisors and consultants.

Two days later, the Secretary to the Bank, Mr James A. Odei, issued a memo to the head of the Estate Department to note and take the necessary action.

Areas to be covered include living rooms, bedrooms, study, kitchen, dining laundry and washrooms.

When reached for his comments, Dr Kwabena Duffour, who retired as Governor on September 30, 2001, confirmed the story but was full of anger saying, he felt the story was leaked to the Evening News by people who are out just to embarrass him.

Dr Duffour said any suggestion that management took those decisions to favour him was wrong, since he had only two weeks left to leave office.