GRi in Parliament
29 – 01 - 2003
Bank of
A "Banking Week"
should also be instituted to reward banks that excel in innovative modern
creative banking system that could retrieve cash from people's homes and hands
to be lodged or saved in the banks.
The sentiments were expressed by
Emmanuel Adjei Boye, NPP- Krowor
in a statement in Parliament on Tuesday on "The Bank of Ghana Act (Act
612) vis -a -vis the
constitutional responsibilities of the bank, expectations and the way forward
in the economic development of
Boye said it was time that the Bank
of Ghana (BOG) recognised the usefulness of communication of monetary policy
decisions to the general public and to guide inflationary expectations and to
seek public consensus.
He said since the constitutional
independence of the Bank of Ghana was to keep government and the money market
away from each other, the problem of excessive Government domestic borrowing
must therefore, be got rid of because of the bank's refusal to keep on
financing deficit spending.
Boye said another area the BOG
through the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Ministry of Finance has to
critically take a look at, was the "dollarisation"
of the economy that resulted from strong expectations of inflation and cedi
depreciation.
He said to correct this anomaly, there was the need to change people's perceptions
of the cedi's strength against major trading
currencies and for the MPC to work towards confidence creation in the cedi by
the general public.
Boye noted that if the Government
was to accomplish its objective of the "Golden Age of Business", then
the BOG has a colossal task of accomplishing through dynamic and innovative
approaches.
He said the Constitutional
provision that provides basic objectives for the BOG as well as general banking
in
"This factor has been left
out completely from the BOG's Act 612 and is a gross
omission. The Constitution further requires the BOG to act as a leader but not
an actor, however, in our present circumstances the BOG is responsible in the
entire banking system as the real actor", he added.
Generally, banking in
Boye said the informal sector receives
very little assistance from the banking community and it was incumbent on the
BOG through its Governor, the Board and MPC to create and sustain mutual
confidence between the banks and the borrowing public.
Dr Benjamen
Kunbuor, NDC- Lawra-Nandom
said it seemed Act 612 was ahead of the banking law and that should not be the
case since there was the need to put across regulatory measures of the general
first before dealing with the specifics later.
He said the capital adequacy
ration was very important to the banking institution and suggested that the
liquid assets column of the banks should be looked as assets base and to be
changed in line with banking laws.
Mrs Grace Coleman, NPP- Effiduase- Asokore and Deputy
Minister of Finance stressed the need for every Ministry, Department and Agency
(MDA's) to have a complaints office and to create
opportunities for people to ask questions and for the authorities to explain
and provide answers to their concerns.
She said the Bank of Ghana
needed the support of, especially parliament in view of the numerous projects
being undertaken and implemented by Government. Kosi Kedem, NDC- Hohoe South reminded
Parliament of its oversight duties and urged the Committee on Finance to
explain to the House whether it has adhered to its Constitutional
responsibilities of regularly checking the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
He noted that if the Governor
was given a free hand to operate and handle foreign exchange for the country,
it would be a disservice to the country and advised the Governor to be cautious
about his involvement with Government in her transactions.
Emmanuel A. Agyepong,
NPP- Abetifi said it was gratifying that the Bank of
Ghana has now relieved itself of petty transactions such as handling of
treasury bills or loans and that are now being handled by the commercial banks.
GRi.../
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