Government Loans Need Definite Re-payment Agreements

The Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, on Wednesday called for definite repayment agreement for companies that were granted Government loans.

He noted that there was no definite instrument by which defaulting companies could be dealt with making it difficult for Government to collect debt owed it by companies.

Mr Kan-Dapaah, who made the observation at PAC meeting in Accra on Wednesday, said: “Chief Executive Officers of companies, appeared to be of the opinion that if they were granted loans by the Government, they needed to be given contracts to re-pay the loans.”

About 21 construction companies that were granted Export Credit Guarantee Department loans through the Ghana Government had all defaulted in payment, resulting in loss, running into millions of Ghana cedis.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said some companies said they could not repay their loans because they were not awarded Government contracts.

On delays in the Ghana Commercial Bank’s transfer of taxes on custom goods into the consolidated fund per an agreement between the bank and Bank of Ghana, Mr Kan-Dapaah said the Auditor General had discovered some irregularities.

He said: “while those monies were supposed to be transferred within three days, the transfer sometimes delayed for up to 12 days, which was not satisfactory.”

Mr Kan-Dapaah said the Accountant General and the Auditor General would discuss the issue with the Ghana Commercial Bank to identify causes of the delay.

Mr Simon Dornoo, Managing Director of Ghana Commercial Bank, said: “sometimes when there were delays in transfer, it meant there were “reconciling issues to deal with. We organize a forum to find out what the issues are and we correct discrepancies”.

He said typically, the transfers were made within 48 hours and: “We are hoping you will see better performance reports than what you see now in future”.

Source: GNA