SEC validation exercise to pay investors ‘biggest lie of the century’ – Isaac Adongo

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo claims the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) validation exercise to pay back investors locked up funds is the biggest lie of the century.

The Bolgatanga Central MP argues that the commission does not have the mandate to close down fund management companies in the country.

Speaking at a public forum on the 2020 budget in Accra on Wednesday, Isaac Adongo reiterated the fact that the commission’s mandate ended after the revocation of the licenses of the fund management companies.

“What right do they have to ask affected customers of closed fund management companies to partake in a validation exercise to claim part of investors locked up funds,” he quizzed.

The Bolgatanga Central MP noted there is no money to pay the affected investors.

“After revoking the licenses, they then set out to do a PR job. They informed everybody that after they had revoked the license, they can go to the CBG branches to fill the forms and collect their monies. That is the biggest lie of the century, ” he said with much conviction.

“Lawyers will tell you that six hours after the licenses have been revoked, it ends there and they only report it to the Registrar General to undertake the rest of the processes for the court to appoint an official liquidator. So they can’t even access the system let alone validate anybody to pay their claims.”

“SEC says they are apologizing. They are not apologizing; they are just buying time because there is no money”, he said.

Almost two ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.

On the back of this, SEC selected branches of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG) to receive claims from clients who have their funds locked up at the affected companies.

The banks were tasked to accept relevant documents for the validation of the investment claims.

According to SEC, the said branches serving as agents were authorised “to ascertain and validate details of investors and their investments with these institutions at the time of the revocation to facilitate the administration of the Government pay-out of a capped amount to affected investors.”

So, earlier this week, many investors of the collapsed fund management companies have been going through the validation process in a bid to receive payment as directed by the commission.