Gold Coast Fund: Parliament sets up probe c’ttee

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has set up a seven-member committee to receive and investigate a petition regarding why the government has failed to pay customers of the defunct Blackshield Capital Limited, formerly Gold Coast Fund Management.

He proposed that the committee should be chaired by the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Essikado-Ketan, Joe Ghartey.

Other members are the National Democratic Congress (NDC) member for Odododiodio, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye; the NPP MP for Tano South, Dr Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere; the NDC MP for Awutu Senya West, Gizella Akushika Tetteh-Agbotui; the NPP MP for Sunyani East, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, and two technical experts — Dr Theophilus Acheampong and Antonio Kesse.

“This committee, under the chairmanship of Joe Ghartey, will go into the petition and report to the House. I propose we give them three months,” he said.

Why committee?

The Speaker said Parliament had received so many petitions on the subject matter for which the government had responded in a number of ways.

He said in some of the official documents, including budget statement, the government had indicated actions taken on such matters.

“But we are still receiving more petitions and so it is important that we delve into the matter,” the Speaker said.

Reliefs

The setting up of the committee came after the NDC MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, presented the petition by the customers of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management on the floor of Parliament yesterday.

Pursuant to Order 76 (3) and appendix A of the Standing Orders, he requested that the petition be referred to a committee pursuant to Order 191 of the Standing Orders, which dealt with the constitution of special or ad hoc committees to look into matters referred to it by the Speaker.

Mr Ayariga had asked Parliament to compel the government to investigate and establish what had accounted for the government’s failure to pay the customers of the defunct fund management.

He also urged the House to compel the government to pay the customers of the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management their investments in the fund since Parliament approved the budget request by the government.

Petitioners

The petition was signed by five persons with their addresses.

They are Charles Nyame of Agona, Ashanti, Bernard Agyekum, East Legon Hills, Rosemond Mensah Grunitsky of New Weija, Nathaniel Mensah of Ebenezer Estate, Opposite Millennium City Junction, and David Opoku of Techiman.

Background

The petition was received on behalf of 61,000 customers of Blackshield Capital Limited, hitherto known as Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM) owned by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom. 

Per the petition, the individuals are members of an organisation known as Aggrieved Customers of Defunct Gold Coast Fund Management.

The petition said the GCFM was a duly registered and accredited fund management company regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission of Ghana.

The funds of the petitioners, valued at about GH¢5 billion, was locked up in the defunct GCFM following the decision of the government through the Ministry of Finance to carry out a financial sector cleanup exercise initiated in 2018.

It said following the financial sector cleanup exercise, the petitioners successfully submitted and validated their claims through PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“The regulator (SEC) budgeted an amount of GH¢8 billion for total payment of the claims of customers of all the 47 defunct fund management companies.

“This Honourable House approved funds for the financial sector cleanup exercise and the Minister of Finance publicly reported that he has completed the exercise and has expended GH¢25 billion in this regard.

“The government’s accounting showed that this sum included the GH₵8.6 billion meant to pay claims of investors in the 47 defunct fund management companies, including Gold Coast Fund Management,” it said.

Unfortunately, individual members of the petitioners’ association whose investment exceeded GH¢50,000 had not been paid the remainder of their money because the government paid only GH¢50,000 to everyone owed in 2020.

“Many members of the petitioners’ association had gone on pension and invested all their retirement benefits in the fund and have consequently been rendered destitute and many have died not being able to afford critically needed medical care.