Features
Staff involvement in fraud …A great concern
The Bank of Ghana, among others, ensure effective and efficient operations of the
banking and credit systems, and support general economic growt
It is becoming increasingly clear that some personnel of financial institutions are involved in fraudulent activities to dupe their customers and make more money to meet their own selfish ends.
This is a matter of great concern to the Bank of Ghana as well as management staff of some of the financial institutions. What this means is that the financial institutions are expected to put in more measures aimed at exposing all those involved in this shameful practice.
WHY FRAUDULENT DEALS?
The question is why the staff of any financial institutions be involved in such fraudulent deals?
Many young people of today do not pay attention to integrity but are only concerned with making money in the shortest possible time. Again, many of the institutions take things for granted and, therefore, give room to some of their staff to engage themselves in fraud. More importantly, however, young people of today as well as some adults think of acquiring wealth without recourse to the business growth of the organisations that they work for. This is a very unfortunate situation.
Such fraudulent deals erode the confidence that customers have in the various types of institutions that operate in the country. If nothing is done about it, many people will begin to lose confidence in making use of the services of these financial institutions.
ROLE OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Banking institutions in any country play a great and significant role in economic development. Banks and other financial institutions help to mop up savings from people and use such savings as a financial resource to facilitate the operations of business enterprises. These business enterprises may operate on a large, small or medium scale, so without the mobilisation of funds from individuals and organisations, it becomes very difficult for the central bank and the government to get enough funds to finance economic activities in the country.
Without such financing, business operations will come to a standstill and show very little growth in the economy. Start-up business entities as well as existing ones are able to help business organisations to expand through such financing. The mopping up of financial resources to make it possible for business organisations to get access to finances for business purposes is, therefore, important if we are to ensure business growth and economic expansion. Such growth and business expansion is what helps to bring about enhanced economic welfare in the country.
STAFF COMPLICITY IN FRAUD SOARS
According to the Bank of Ghana, staff involvement in fraud has seen an increase since last year. This unpleasant development must be discouraged without delay.
Staff of Banks and other Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions involvement in fraud, constituted 53.46 per cent of total fraud cases in 2021, a report by the Bank of Ghana has noted. This canker continued to increase in the year under review.
Statistics indicate that staff involvement in fraud cases increased to 278, as compared with 253 in 2020, representing an increase of 9.88 per cent in year-on-year terms.
For 2021, the Rural and Community Banks recorded the highest rate of staff involvement in fraud with a figure of 46.04 per cent. The Universal Banks accounted for 28.06 per cent, while the Savings and Loans Companies accounted for 16.55 per cent.
LACK OF HONESTY & INTEGRITY
The banking staff are getting involved in such disgraceful acts because of the lack of honesty and integrity on the part of many of them. The way the banks recruit their personnel must be made more rigorous, so as to weed out all those who are likely to fall prey to fraudulent activities with the aim of making massive wealth for themselves within a very short time.
Also, staff of financial institutions found to be involved in fraudulent deals must be made to face the rigid consequences of the law, so as to deter others from doing same.
LACK OF ADEQUATE CONTROL SYSTEMS
This issue, unpleasant as it is, cannot be swept under the carpet. The Bank of Ghana said the consistently high rate of staff involvement in fraud cases reported by Banks and SDIs may be due to lack of adequate control systems in the financial institutions (especially the Rural Banking sector), poor background investigations on prospective, newly appointed and temporary staff, poor remuneration in the Banking and SDI sectors, among others.
These factors accounting for the fraudulent behaviour of some staff of the financial institutions must be eliminated from our society by hook or crook. Things should not be taken for granted.
APPROPRIATE CORRECTIVE MEASURES
Rather, the appropriate corrective measures needed must be put in place to ensure that the banking and financial sectors are sanitised once and for all, so that business growth in the country can be guaranteed.
It is this guarantee that will smoothen out all the rough edges to make it possible for business operators to be encouraged to carry out their successful business activities without any fear.
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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