OFFICIALS of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may have closed in on Mrs. Funke Osibodu, group managing director of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (UBN) in what has been described as a move to verify the growing spate of allegations bothering on activities incongruous with the aspirations of the apex bank in appointing her as an interim manager of the bank.
BusinessWorld Intelligence can reveal that a team of forensic auditors moved into the bank last week with specific instructions to visit some 17 issues that have been considered as very critical to the survival of the bank as such have been serious issues of contention between the management and the about 7,000 strong workforce of the first generation bank.
The CBN had last month delegated three of its staff namely, Mr. A.O. Utulu, Mr. R.O. Nduka and Mr. M.A. Akanji, to carry out the special function beginning August 30. An authorization letter addressed to the managing director of UBN was signed by Mrs. A.B Ogbechi on behalf of the director of banking supervision.
Rattled by the series of petitions from the bank and other professional bodies, the CBN was believed to have bowed to pressure and mandated its team of auditors to look into the following issues as a matter of urgency:
• The salary structure and emoluments of all staff members and management team (prior to the new management team and the current).
• Schedule of fixed assets as at 31st July 2009.
• Management account from June 2009 to July 2010.
• Published accounts for 2009 financial year-end.
• List of new employees from August 2009 to date, stating status, posting, date assumed duty, previous employers and status.
• List of staff disengaged from August 2009 to date, stating status and department as at the time of disengagement, date disengaged and reason for disengagement.
• Published Accounts of Banque International De Benin (BIBE) for 2008, 2009, 2010.
• Collective Agreement between the management and the staff union.
• Pension agreement if not contained in the collective agreement.
• List of staff of the bank, showing qualification, department and date posted to the department.
• Human resources policy.
• Capitalization plan of the bank.
• Schedule of outstanding credits  as at 31st July 2009 and 31st July 2010.
• Schedule of new facilities  from 1st August 2009 to 31st July 2010.
• Schedule of recoveries from 1st August 2009 to 31st July 2010,
Showing amounts  recovered and dates of recovery.
• Schedule of accounts maintained by management staff, Board minutes covering the period 1st August, 2009 to date.
• Evidence of compliance with CBN directives on $13 million (N1.86 billion) granted to BIBE on 9th July 2009 for recapitalization.