Heritage Bank Plc is currently stuck in a debilitating
liquidity situation; SaharaReporters has learned.
liquidity situation; SaharaReporters has learned.
Our sources disclosed on Monday that the bank is
unable to meet customers’ immediate withdrawal
requests and has wiped out all foreign currency
domiciliary accounts through physical theft of cash
by the bank's directors.
First Bank Plc, which handles Heritage Bank's
universal clearing activities, has threatened to
blacklist the bank and stop further clearing
transactions if its outstanding deficit of over
N5billion is not cleared.
At the weekend, at a meeting held at a secret
location between the Managing Director and some
top management staff, it was resolved that the
Managing Director and two Executive Directors
should resign their appointment for their role in
throwing the institution into distress.
Sources said the bank's operations in the Northern
part of the country region are sustained by one
customer, Rano Oil Limited, which maintains a
deposit with Heritage Bank because its Chairman is
unaware of the severity of the situation in the bank
has slipped into.
Among others, the Managing Director is alleged to
have been involved in the laundering of about
N12.8billion. Two insurance firms: IEI Insurance
Plc, and the National Insurance Commission of
Nigeria, are said to be connected to the matter.
SaharaReporters gathered that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was prepared
to charge the Managing Director to court, but did
not, following the intervention of Senate President
Bukola Saraki, who is a part-owner of the bank. The
EFCC, whose chairman is awaiting confirmation by
the Senate, stepped back.
Customers with foreign currency deposits are facing
severe difficulties because they no longer have
access to those funds.
Because of the magnitude of the bank's problems
and the possibility of prosecution, the Managing
Director is said to have taken ill.
Out of about 500 Automated Teller Machines
(ATMs) of the bank in the Lagos metropolis, only
138 are currently dispensing cash, the bank lacking
money to feed the others.
Bank sources said a sum of N140million is
required to supply all the ATM locations, and
Heritage struggles to provide N10million for these
ATM locations, which is why its machines rarely
dispense cash.
The bank's situation is further worsened by
boardroom intrigues, tribal politics and ownership
tussle.
The Managing Director and one Executive Director
are said to run the bank like sole proprietors. The
Managing Director and another Executive Director,
Mary Akpobomen, who has been promised the
position of the Deputy Managing Director by
December, are in the same camp. The Yoruba
interest in the bank, with Board Chairman, Mr. Seyi
Akinfenwa, also has Mr. Tayo Ayeni and two
Executive Directors, Mr. Niyi Adeseun and Mr. Ola
Olabimjo on another side. On yet another side are
Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN), who is the main pusher of Delta
State/Agbor interest. The battle axes are said to be
two other Executive Directors, Mrs. Ada Eze and Mr.
Jude.
The three-dimensional feuds have ensured that
positions, postings or deployments are made on
lines of group loyalty, with competence plainly
ignored. The bank's Treasurer, Mr. Abidemi
Shonaiki, was eased out of the bank when the
Managing Director was on leave.
Insiders revealed that the bank has been turned into
a compost heap by its top management staff, who
among other misdeeds, use customers' naira
deposits to finance the acquisition of private
properties in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. They
are also said to award contracts at inflated costs to
the Managing Director, relatives, and friends of
executive directors; employ top management staff
without clearance from the CBN; bribe CBN staff on
banking inspection with dollars; and cover up the
bank's liquidity problems by buying cash from other
banks without the required documents or due
diligence.
The Heritage Bank management portfolio of
misdeeds is also said to include paying
N100million bribe to pension funds officials for
patronage retention; illegal warehousing of
N1.2billion that should be in the Treasury Savings
Account; as well as illegal clearance of customers'
deposits via issuance and payments of questionable
‘PRs’ in hundreds of millions.
The CBN Governor has ensured that these
misdemeanors are kept hidden due to political
pressure by the owners of the bank, and because
the CBN doesn't want to give the appearance of
further distress in the banking sector following the
recent crisis at Skye Bank.
The bank's ailments have also manifested in the
practice of debiting customers' accounts for
transfers without crediting the beneficiaries for days,
blaming it on network failure; arbitrary sacking of
staff who insist on standards; sacking of staff who
exposed the fraud involving the Nigeria Ports
Authority through which N7billion was illegally
warehoused and diverted in clear violation of TSA
directives; and refusal to report fraudulent activities
involving relatives and cronies of the Managing and
Executive Directors.
Other symptoms of poor corporate governance
include the transfer to Abuja, but not sanction, of an
Executive Director and General Manager from Lagos
for committing fraud; promoting Managing
Director’s relatives without appraisal; fraudulent
conversion of bank properties by the Managing
Director and top management staff; and the
procurement of N2billion worth of furniture items
and N3billion Toyota cars without passing through
tender procedure.
Also, the bank awarded all cleaning contracts to
one Mrs. Akpobome, who used different names for
contracts, which cover North, South, West, East and
Abuja outlets of the bank. The Managing Director
and other top management staff also award
contracts to their wives and children without due
diligence.
The bank, the sources added, employed school
certificate holders as officers, assistant managers,
deputy managers or managers, even without
experience.
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