Otabil did no wrong in bank collapse - Isaac Adongo

The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Mr Isaac Adongo, has defended former Chairman of defunct Capital Bank, Pastor Mensa Otabil, over his role in the collapse of the bank in August 2017.

He said the attempt to implicate the motivational speaker in the collapse of Capital Bank using a report prepared by Boulders Advisors was ill-informed and lacked merit.

He said the report by the Boulders Advisors, which sort to implicate the founder and general overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) was ill-prepared by an institution that lacked the competence to undertake assurance on a bank.

"That report is the most useless piece of work and the most useless share of public funds to friends," he said at a public forum organised by Progressive Alliance Media Communications (PAMC) on the banking crisis.

"Since this matter started, you realised that I have not commented on the role of Pastor Otabil? That is because he did no wrong contrary to what the Bank of Ghana and government will want us to believe," he said.

He also explained that the Pastor Otabil board did no wrong by using the liquidity support provided Capital Bank prior to its collapse as loans; explaining that the banking was only doing business to help stay afloat.

As a bank, Mr Adongo said Capital Bank's primary responsibility was the business of giving loans and taking deposits. Therefore, by lending the funds customers, he said the bank was only undertaking its core mandate, the reason Pastor Otabil should not be blamed.

He said as an institution licensed by the Securities and Exchange and Commission, Mr Adongo said Boulders lacked the competence to provide assurances on bank when trusted institutions such as EY, Deloitte & Touché and PwC were available.