Stakeholders in some of the banks that were taken over by the Central Bank of Nigeria last year on grounds of gross mismanagement and capital erosion are beginning to raise concerns over the way some of the banks are currently being run by the new managements.

A few of the CBN-appointed managing directors and executive directors are being accused of indulging in the same excesses for which the former chief executives were fired.

Some of the ”excesses” include unilateral policy changes and board appointments, indiscriminate purchases of luxury cars and drawing huge allowances in spite of the fact that some of the banks have negative capital, according to information gathered by our correspondent.

For example, in one of the banks, which fired hundreds of workers last year, one of the newly-appointed executive directors allegedly applied for and got a N150m loan without a repayment schedule. The same director also got a N20m personal loan in the same week.

Also, the CBN appointed Managing Director of BankPHB, Mr. Cyril Chukwuma, who assumed office in October, is alleged to have demanded for and collected $120,000 as overseas vacation allowance for a recent three-week holiday after spending just three months in office.

This, according to insiders, was a clear violation of the bank‘s policy, which provides that workers must have spent a minimum of six months before qualifying for leave while in the case of senior executives, they must have spent at least a year in office.

Insiders told our correspondent that having spent less then three months in office, the MD should have collected a pro-rated amount based on the time spent in office so far.

The same managing director was also said to have published the bank‘s third quarter 2009 results in the newspapers without the approval of the board and in defiance of a court order restraining him from publishing the accounts.

The court order was consequent upon a suit brought by the bank‘s vice-chairman, Prof. Pat Utomi who challenged the action on the grounds that the board had not approved the publication of the result.

The results were also not approved by the Nigeria Stock Exchange, which queried the bank and later imposed a hefty fine for the infraction.

Insiders are also concerned that the CEO, just weeks after assuming office, allegedly unilaterally changed the bank‘s policy on official vehicles for bank executives to monetisation. This means that the CEO now collects N2m monthly in lieu of official cars.

Under normal banking rules, the value of the official cars should have been amortised over a period of four years.

Documents sighted by THE PUNCH over the weekend also indicated that Chukwumah approved the appointment of himself and the bank‘s General Manager, International Banking, Mr. Valentine Ozigbo as new directors of BankPHB (UK) Limited, the bank‘s offshore subsidiary, which is yet to commence operations without the approval of the board. The MD has also allegedly approved the replacement of Utomi and Mr. Akin Kekere-Ekun as directors of the UK firm.

Some members of the banks management are also concerned about the approval of a N60m mortgage loan for a certain un-confirmed staff, which is only staff mortgage loan as a ”reward” for the key role he played in preparing the controversial third quarter report.

The said staff was said to have spent less than one year as at the time the loan was approved in November 2009, though workers on the level of assistant general manger to general manager need to spend two years in office and must have been confirmed to qualify for a loan.

Worried by apparent leaks of developments in the banks to third parties, some of the rescued banks have barred staff from dislosing company information.

To this end, all staff of the bank were forced to sign an ”Information Confidentiality Letter of Undertaking,” in November in 2009, which forbids any staff to disclose information to an external party, with corresponding severe sanctions for any staff violating this directive.

An official of the bank confirmed on Sunday that the MD went on leave during the Christmas period.

She said, “The MD went on leave for about two weeks but I am not aware that he collected $120,000.”