Reports that employees of some of the banks operating in the country have allegedly devised crude methods of breaking into customers’ accounts and transferring various sums of money from them should be a matter of grave concern to everybody who believes in savings.
Clearly, it should send shivers down the spines of customers of the banks involved, because it paints a gloomy picture of how unfortunate one’s desire to save in a bank could turn out to be.
To be honest, this is not the first time Ghanaians are hearing about the unpleasant news of the bad conduct of some bank staff, as there are several reported and unreported instances of such unholy acts being perpetrated by some of these employees.
For instance, if any of the account holders visits the bank during an emergency situation, particularly a health related one, and suddenly notes that his or her account has been emptied without his or her knowledge or approval, the shock could be fatal.
The Chronicle is, therefore, happy that the banks are beginning to detect these types of crimes and preventing them from escalating, to cause more harm to customers.
We, however, urge other banks and financial institutions to, as a matter of urgency, learn hard lessons from the conduct of some of their staff, who have been arrested, and put in strong preventive measures to ensure that such crimes do not occur again.
In our honest view, banks and other financial institutions continue to be high profile trusted security zones, where people safely invest and keep their hard earned money and other valuables. In view of this, persons who are employed as staff must be people with no criminal records and any other blemish that could compromise the security of the banks and their customers.
We, therefore, wish to suggest that there must be uncompromised systems in place to ensure that thorough background checks are always done before new staff are employed.
Additionally, systematic efforts must be made to ensure that activities of staff, particularly new ones, are regularly monitored as they come face to face with huge sums of money on daily basis.
Ghanaians are being encouraged to cultivate the habit of saving at the bank, therefore, efforts must be made to curtail such unpleasant news from occurring.
Criminals must be prevented from working at our banks to bolster the confidence of the ordinary Ghanaian to save. We must also take note that both current and previous governments have all been going round the globe looking for investors to come and invest in our economy. In our view, if the emerging trend is not nipped in the bud, it can erode the confidence that these investors have in our economy, with resultant dire consequences.
Looking at the high unemployment rate in the country, one should rather thank God that he or she has got the opportunity to work with a bank, instead of seeing it as an avenue to perpetrate crime.
