Friday, February 14, 2025

Barclays shelves interim results

The decision by Barclays Bank Botswana to postpone the announcement of their interim results on Monday has raised eyebrows.

The results were due to be presented to shareholders, analysts and the media on Monday.
But late last week a decision was taken to postpone the announcement indefinitely, prompting fresh suspicions of governance hiccups.

The financial power house has recently attracted a flurry of negative publicity following a decision to investigate allegations of wrong doing against some of the top executives.
The Bank has had to call in forensic investigators after a whistleblower alleged credit card fraud and favoritism against some senior executives.

There were even allegation by the state television, Botswana Television, that Managing Director Thuli Johnson had been suspended, allegations that have since been refuted by Board Chairman, Rizwan Desai.

In a statement to The Telegraph, the Head of Corporate Affairs, Esther Norris underplayed any foul play, insisting that Barclays Bank takes their obligations with Botswana Stock Exchange seriously.
“Barclays takes its reporting obligations seriously and will announce the dates of the announcement and the dates of the briefings at a time convenient to all stakeholders including shareholders, analysts and the media; as has been the practice,” said Ms Norris.

She said in line with Botswana Stock Exchange, Barclays Bank of Botswana has to publish its interim reports no later than three months after the expiration of the first six months of a financial year (30 September 2010).

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