Pratt: BoG Must Intervene In NPP-Prudential Bank Saga

The Managing editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has called on the Bank of Ghana to intervene in the ongoing brouhaha between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Prudential Bank Ltd over allegations that the former has failed to pay a loan it contracted from the latter in the run-up to the 2012 elections.

The veteran journalist speaking on Adom FM on Thursday said the intervention is necessary to determine the circumstances that led the bank to lend money to the political party.

“Is this a prudent investment…Bank of Ghana is supposed to be the regulator, I hope the Bank of Ghana is listening and has seen this letter…so if you deposit money at Prudential bank, this is what they do with the money?” Kwesi Pratt queried on the show.

According to him, he was shocked when he heard that the Bank has approved an overdraft for the NPP to use to feed its polling agents especially as the manager at the bank cannot be certain that the party would pay back with the accrued interest.

“I am sad that a bank manager that knows his work would lend money to a political party…is this a prudent investment to embark on…?” he asked again.

A leaked letter making the rounds shows that the leadership of the party has defaulted in paying an overdraft of 1.5 million cedis which it borrowed from the bank to take care of polling agents in the 2012 elections.

Ken Ofori-Atta, then chairman of the Campaign Fundraising Committee, and Kelly Gadzekpo, who were both staff of Databank at the time, were guarantors of the loan.

“We are therefore by the letter requesting you, as guarantors of the facility, to ensure that the overdrawn balance of GHC2,290,63.36 together with the interest thereon is paid off immediately but in any case not later than 30'" April, 2015…,” the letter stated.

Ken Ofori-Atta has since called on the management of the Ghanaian bank to distance the NPP party from the debt.

“I would urge the supporters of the NPP and the entire public to disregard the mischief that the leakage of this letter and those behind it seek to create. Our party has always been proud to fund itself by contributions and sacrifices of its members. This loan was guaranteed privately and the Party, therefore, is not directly liable for it…,” he said in a statement.

All these notwithstanding, the newspaper editor thinks the Prudential bank manager did not undertake a prudent investment with the money of his clients by lending it to the NPP.