Excess Charges: Bayelsa Assembly orders banks to refund N26 billion
By Adetokunbo Fakeye
Bayelsa House of Assembly today (Thursday) gave commercial banks in the state a 30-day ultimatum to refund excess charges and deductions from the state government accounts, totaling over N26 billion.
The House gave this order following the adoption of a motion by the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Public Accounts, Tonye Isenah.
While moving the motion on the floor of the Assembly, Hon. Isenah said his committee had carried out an investigation following public outcry over the unethical practices by commercial banks in the state and it has been observed that the practice violated Section 4, Subsection 11 c of the code of ethics and professionalism in the banking and finance industry.
Hon Isenah said the investigation by the committee revealed that commercial banks in the state had fleeced the state of about N26 billion from excess charges and deductions on government revenue.
Adopting the motion, the Assembly passed a resolution directing the state ministries of Finance and Justice to recover the said N26 billion.
It mandated the Ministry of Finance to cooperate with the Public Accounts Committee of the Assembly to audit the accounts of the state government from 1999 to 2006.
The committee were also to extend the investigation to state ministries, departments and agencies and recover any extra charges noticed.
Speaking after adopting the motion, the Speaker of the Assembly, Rt.Hon. Konbowei Benson, commended the committee for a job well done and assured the people of the state that the Assembly would pursue the matter to a logical conclusion.
Indicted banks were Access Bank, Keystone Bank, GTBank, First Bank, Ecobank, UBA, Union bank, FCMB, and Zenith Bank.