The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Stephen Amoah, has indicated that it is now prepared to take drastic measures to compel defaulting Members of Parliament (MPs) to settle their indebtedness to the institution.
According to Mr Amoah, even though he has tried as much as possible to be respectful and ethical to the Parliamentary institution, he is yet to receive a response from any of the MPs after he had sent them letters requesting they pay back their loans.
He added that he had petitioned the clerk of Parliament and exhausted all available means to get the MPs from both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who served as guarantors to beneficiaries or personally took the car loans to pay up and will now seek the face of the law in the matter.
“And if an MP is taken to court, the whole nation would agree with me that we did all that we could do to make the issue a bit more flexible for them. They have just decided not to comply. So, after we are going to publish their names, our lawyers will write to them and if they don’t yield we will take them to court,” he said.
His comment comes after MASLOC seized over 350 commercial vehicles mostly taxis from individuals and groups who have defaulted or reneged on the institution’s loan payment terms.
He explained that: “There is a declaration that any time there is a default, the guarantor will have to perform that obligation so when I came and was going through my document…or fact-finding exercise to find out what is happening. I realise that our debt is over 100 million Ghana cedis,” adding that it has become necessary to take such actions to salvage the situation or the institution may soon collapse.
Established in 2006, MASLOC provides, manages, regulates and approves loans as well as support the development of small and medium scale enterprises but the politicisation of the institution has led to massive debt.
Explaining why MPs and other beneficiaries came in the possession of MASCLOC cars and loans instead of serving small and medium scale enterprises on an Accra-based radio station, he stated that:“The fact that we are saying it is meant for (Small-scale enterprises), does not mean that it’s a closed statement. it’s a financial institution that gives out loans and even if we want to target SMEs, MASLOC can give as much as 500,000 Ghana cedis per our policy framework.
“So, if somebody comes and says I have ABCD business, I need a car or somebody can even come and say that I am in this constituency, community, business, I have this number of boys and girls that I am helping to do this, I want to guarantee or help them to have these cars and we appraise your application and we realise that it is quite … it’s all about building Ghana.”
“But what we are going to do now is that the number of years and months you use the cars. I am going to do the depreciation value of it and you will pay otherwise we will take you to court. We don’t want MASLOC to be managed as if it’s a political institution again,” he added.
