Beige-Bank trial: Receiver did not engage financial department before collapsing bank

Sogbodjor, former Finance Manager of the defunct Beige Bank has told the High Court trying the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) that the receiver during the collapse of the Bank did not engage the Institution’s financial team.

He said although the finance team of the defunct bank, including the CFO worked briefly with the receiver, he failed to consult them on a lot of information concerning the Bank’s financial affairs before presenting the reports he had compiled in respect of the affairs of the Bank, which reports were now before the court.

“Exhibits 1 and A were prepared based on information available to the receiver on the Bank’s accounting system, such information, however, does not reflect the true and final financial and accounting position of the Bank.

“The reason is that such information is not accepted in accounting as the final and true statement of an institution’s financial and accounting position,” he said.

He continued that “In financial accounting, it is common practice for institutions to be allowed a period of between thirty (30) to ninety [90] days after the end of an accounting year to prepare the financial reports of that specific year.”

“With regard to exhibits 1 and A, however, I observed after reading them that the receiver retained and maintained the same information given to him from the team when he took over the Bank as a receiver and up until almost five years later when Mr Ayivor started testifying, saying the reports omitted a lot of information he provided to the receiver.

“This is wrong, I, therefore, say that exhibits 1 and A are not accurate and do not reflect the true accounting position of the Bank. The receiver appears to appreciate the fact that exhibits 1 and A cannot be final when he admits on page 17 of exhibit 1 that: there were significant number of assets physically present at the various branches that had records.”