Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta says government has so far spent 9.9 billion cedis on rescuing ailing banks and special deposit taking institutions in the country. He justified the investment, saying it has created a strong local bank in the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, which is being positioned to finance small and medium scale enterprises. The Finance Minister revealed in his 2019 budget statement to Parliament on Thursday under the theme: “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity”. Ken Ofori-Atta assured that the deposits of the 1.2 million depositors will not be lost as the liquidator work to recover assets of the institutions involved. He stressed that this must be done to recover the cost to taxpayers by the bailout. ETHICS AND INTERNAL INVESTIGATION Other measures to bring accountability in the distressed financial sector is the setting up of an ethics and internal investigation unit at the bank of Ghana to bring to book staff found culpable in the mismanagement of the seven distressed banks and other deposit taking institutions. In the last 22 months, the government has been engaged in a cleanup of the financial sector, which the finance minister is confident will contribute to a macroeconomic stability. By Afua Tieku | 3news.com | Ghana]]>