All top executives but the CEO of Unibank, are still at post at the bank despite the presence of new managers from auditing firm, KPMG.
Dr. Kwabena Duffour Junior has been made to step aside as the new managers say his continuous existence creates a duplication of roles with the Head of the new management team.
The latest revelation comes about six weeks after the Bank of Ghana permitted KPMG to take over the management of Unibank.
At the time of the announcement by the central bank in March, the jobs of at least nine directors were considered to be on the line.
This followed their alleged role for the challenges facing the bank at the time.
But the Head of Audit Services at KPMG, Anthony Sarpong tells Citi Business News the CEO, Dr. Kwabena Duffour Junior had to be relieved due to the presence of a new Executive Head, Mr. Simon Dornoo, also a former MD of GCB Bank.
“We brought the Executive Head whose level is almost like the CEO… So the CEO was asked to proceed on leave because there could not be two CEOs in a bank at the same time,” he explained.
There had been reports that three top executives that is the Deputy MD, Head of IT as well as the Board Secretary, have all had their contracts terminated.
But responding to this, Mr. Sarpong explained that such individuals were rather compelled to embark on their accumulated leave ranging between 19 to 45 days.
In his words, failing to embark on such breaks continued to burden the already troubled bank as they could claim bonuses which otherwise could have been saved.
“The three executives were made to embark on their normal leave which had accumulated after which they will return. Before you even disengage, you need an approval from the Bank of Ghana,” Mr. Sarpong stated.
Unibank, has among others been cited for breaching a series of banking rules.
For instance, the company had been operating a capital adequacy ratio of negative 24 percent as well as failure to comply with regulatory requirements, including Lending to a number of borrowers in excess of its regulatory lending limit (single obligor limit).
For now, any decision on employment termination may be determined after KPMG concludes its work in six months time.