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The Ghana Audit Service has clarified that a letter circulating in the public domain revealing that ¢ 52.5 billion of tax revenue that has been diverted to unknown accounts is only part of the document in an ongoing audit exercise.
The clarification comes after a letter with the title, ‘Audit service reports of ¢ 52.5 billion transferred from GCB Bank to unknown sources.’ began to circulate on social media.
But the Deputy Auditor General, George Swanzy Winful in a statement pointed out that the audit that has been requested by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is to confirm the transfer of receipts from various transit accounts maintained by commercial banks to the respective Bank of Ghana maintains accounts from 2015 to date.
According to him, some funds were found to be missing during the audit exercise.
However, he noted that with the help of participating commercial banks and the central bank, some of the money has been traced.
Please note that our outstanding letter is one of the letters we sent to participating commercial banks for their responses to violations observed during our reconciliation of their statements. [And] With the help of commercial banks and the Bank of Ghana, we have succeeded. able to trace with satisfaction, some of the transfers.
“The cooperation of the participating banks is encouraging and we hope to complete the reconciliation exercise soon,” he said.
Mr. Winful then noted that the Service will not hesitate to collect a surcharge from any participating commercial bank that does not transfer the tax receipts collected from the various transit accounts to the respective BoG Holding Accounts.
“Once again, we want to assure the public that, as usual, we will present the audit report to Parliament when the exercise is completed.”
Meanwhile, the bank at the center of the problem, GCB Bank Limited, has rejected claims suggesting it transferred ¢ 52.5 billion of tax revenue to unknown accounts.
In a statement issued by the Bank, he said, “it noted with grave concern the publication of a manipulated letter dated October 5, 2020, allegedly emanating from the Ghana Audit Service (GAS) regarding the transferred funds.
Therefore, the bank asked the general public to ignore the post, as its content is false and maliciously designed to discredit the bank.
“GCB Bank will not engage in any activity that erodes the trust that the public has placed in us over the years.
“We hereby deny the allegations that the GCB made unauthorized transfers. In addition, we have assured all of our stakeholders that GCB, as a bank of international reputation, conducts its activities in accordance with sound banking principles, ”the statement read.
