Bright Simons alleges massive rot at Development Bank Ghana

Rather than directly addressing concerns raised by internal whistleblowers and civil society organisations, the DBG’s leadership initially adopted what Mr Simons called a “gaslighting” strategy—attempting to downplay or discredit the allegations.

The resistance eventually gave way to an independent investigation by Deloitte, commissioned by the Board in January 2025. However, Mr Simons claims that “initial Deloitte drafts caused pandemonium,” leading to multiple revisions and rewrites before a final version, titled a “progress report,” was presented on May 21, 2025.

This report was shared with the new government and DBG’s international financiers, who had mounted pressure for transparency. Despite attempts to “overcompensate for the seriously damning findings by including generous dollops of management rationalisations,” Simons maintained that “facts are stubborn.”

The confidential nature of the report means its contents may not be made public immediately. Some of Deloitte’s submissions also flagged limitations in its investigative scope, prompting the government to involve state security and investigative agencies—potentially signalling the beginning of criminal investigations.

Mr Simons highlighted several damning findings in his exposé, including:

• Overruled oversight: “You will see that board members who pushed for cost verification were overruled by the majority. Why would any serious fiduciary board do that?” he questioned.

• Arbitrary budgeting: “Consistent with the Board’s posture, DBG’s IT budget was set arbitrarily as a percentage of total assets, with no real connection to the needs of the Bank,” he said.

• IT procurement irregularities: Simons pointed out significant discrepancies in the pricing of the Temenos core banking platform, which led to “millions of dollars in price variations” without direct engagement with original suppliers. He cited a $6 million “biztech discrepancy” alone.

• Contract lapses: He also revealed that “several contracts signed with vendors were not reviewed by legal counsel. When this was found out, attempts were made to retroactively review contracts that had already been signed.”

• Vendor accountability gaps: Simons noted “wide-ranging gaps between status updates shared by AWC, another vendor, and the verified deliverables,” which could potentially translate into millions of dollars in losses.

These findings, if verified, indicate profound weaknesses in governance, procurement, legal compliance, and financial controls—issues that could seriously undermine the credibility of Ghana’s flagship development finance institution.