TTB Boss denies Ecobank's claim

11/01/12, Page 3

Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Managing Director of the The Trust Bank (TTB), Mr Larry Yirenkyi-Boafo, has denied claims by Ecobank that the payment of end-of-service benefits to some top officials of TTB was not approved.
Writing through his solicitors, the Faith Chambers, Mr Yirenkyi-Boafo said the payment of end-of-service benefits was “discussed and approved at an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors of The Trust Bank on Monday, August 8, 2011”.
He said a copy of the minutes of the said emergency meeting, together with a schedule containing the names of the affected officers, was made available to the Managing Director of Ecobank, Mr Samuel Ashittey-Adjei.
Reacting to a front-page story carried in the January 9, 2012 issue of the Daily Graphic, Mr Yirenkyi-Boafo said the issue was fully addressed in his December 29, 2011 reply to a query from Mr Ashittey-Adjei.
He said in the circumstances, the purported averment contained in the publication in the Daily Graphic that, “The Ecobank source said though the interdicted boss of TTB had claimed the package was approved by the old board of TTB before its dissolution last month, there were no minutes to that effect” was false.
In addition, Mr Yirenkyi-Boafo denied that the payment was done on the blind side of the new owners of the bank, Ecobank, as reported by the Daily Graphic, saying that the claim that he alone took home GH¢1.88 or US$1.3 million was also false.
He stated that the story cast an aspersion on his reputation as a successful banker and might likely diminish his chances of securing employment with any reputable financial institution, either locally or internationally.
He, therefore, called for a retraction of the story that he had taken home GH¢1.88 million or US$1.3 million as his end-of-service package and demanded an apology for the embarrassment caused him.
A compensation and redundancy package document made available to the Daily Graphic indicated that the executive committee members of the bank were to be compensated as per Section 19 of the Contract of Service in case of reconstruction, merger or amalgamation, as they were not likely to be offered positions and terms as they currently enjoy.
According to the document, members of staff with 10 or more years of continuous service with the bank were to receive five months’ gross for each year served and pro rata, while those with less than 10 years’ service were to receive three months basic salary for each year served with pro rata.
“Where a staff is made to resign in such a way as to make him or her redundant, he or she shall continue to enjoy benefits such as medical, security and utilities for a period of one year, while staff affected by a redundancy exercise who had up to five years or less years remaining before attaining the statutory retirement age of 60 years, the bank would calculate and pay to the staff the pension contributions for those years,” the document said.
According to the document, there were two categories of people to be settled.
The first group comprises executive committee members, including the secretary of the bank, who are not expected to receive an amount not exceeding GH¢7.1 million.
The second group comprises heads of departments who are approximately 55 years and above, the idea being to give these people the opportunity to either opt to stay or take an early retirement.
An amount of GH¢2.67 million has been earmarked for the five people whose profiles had been provided.
These include Ms Leah Dickson, the Head of the Human Resource Management Department; Mr Emmanuel Obeng Adjei, Head, ICT and E-Banking; Mr Michael Yaw Barimah, Head, Foreign Operations; Mr Robert Danso-Boakye, Head, Credit Administration.
In all, according to the document, “the board approved, at its August, 2011 meeting, and adopted a resolution authorising the payment of GH¢9.8 million to the executive members and the five heads of departments who opted out of the merger”.