Apply DKM Principle in Menzgold saga – NDC to govt

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as a smoking gun, efforts by government to help aggrieved customers of troubled gold dealership firm, Menzgold Company Limited, retrieve their monies.

According to the NDC, the recent action by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to freeze the accounts of the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Nana Appiah Mensah, alias NAM 1 leaves much to be desired.

Read also: Government officials chase Menzgold CEO in Dubai

At a press conference in Accra, the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi noted that efforts by government to bring NAM 1, who is currently in the custody of Emirati authorities, to book, is not enough.

He is, therefore, of the belief that the only way government can correct the “greatest financial calamity to have befallen the Ghanaian people” is to compensate customers of Menzgold.

“We insist that government has a constitutional duty to protect its citizens and safeguard their interests, including their economic rights at all times. The state is clothed with enough power and resources to retrieve the monies of Menzgold customers or to compensate them. This responsibility must not be abdicated as if government is just a passive observer in this whole debacle,” he said.

Government won’t pay Menzgold customers

Following cries by aggrieved customers of Menzgold that government should intervene in the matter just as it did for customers of DKM, government last Thursday announced that it would employ all the powers of the State to ensure that NAM 1, is found and investigated.

It explained, however, that whereas DKM was licensed by the BoG, Menzgold operated as a trading company and thus falls outside the scope of the regulator’s intervention.

But the NDC believes that “there is no material distinction between the DKM matter and this present Menzgold issue.”

Describing the position of government as hypocritical and one that smacks of double-standards, Mr Gyamfi noted that, in line with the DKM principle, government must take responsibility and retrieve the monies of Menzgold customers for them or pay same to them.

“Just as DKM was licensed by the BOG, Menzgold was also registered by the Registrar General and licensed by the Minerals Commission of Ghana. Both cases concern two registered and duly licensed business entities which are regulated by State institutions, pay taxes to the state and who in one way or the other violated the conditions of their licenses. The Akufo-Addo Government must therefore be consistent and apply the same position they took on the DKM matter in 2016 (“the DKM Principle”) to this Menzgold saga.”