BoG head office not earthquake resistant the most ridiculous excuse to say the least—Minority

Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Minority leader has said the Bank of Ghana's (BOG) justification for a $250 million new headoffice is incomprehensible.

According to Mr. Forson, previous Governors and Directors operated under the same old facility and made profits.

“The excuse that the current Bank of Ghana Head office is not earthquake resistant is most ridiculous to say the least. We need not remind the Bank of Ghana that previous Governors and Directors of the bank maximized the operations and profit of the bank from that same old facility by deploying more reasonable options of relocating aspects of the bank’s operations to the Cedi House and another facility of the Bank on the Spintex Road,” Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson stated.

He continued that it is ridiculous for BoG to prioritize a $250 million dollar new office complex at a time it has recorded an unprecedented loss of GHS60.8 billion.

“The question BOG must answer is that; if at the time the Bank of Ghana recorded successive years of profit under NDC/Mahama government (2012-2016), the managers of the bank did not consider a new office complex an urgent priority but rather invested in the construction of the BOG hospital to support the healthcare needs of the country, how can BOG prioritize a new $250 million dollar office complex at a time it has recorded an unprecedented loss of GHS60.8 billion and a negative equity of GHS55.1 billion?

“It is instructive to note, that the cost of the ill-timed new head office complex the BOG is rapidly putting up is four times the cost of the ultramodern Ecobank Head Office building and six times the cost of Kempinski hotel in Accra.

“In fact, our conservative estimates show that the cost of the new head office complex the BOG is putting up can build at least, 3,750 new six (6)-unit classroom blocks to expand access to education or at least 3,500 CHP compounds to improve the access to health care delivery in the country,” he stressed in a statement.