Companies urged to update information with ORC to avoid sanctions

The Registrar of companies at the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC), Mrs Jemima Oware,  has advised companies to update their information with the office.

She said that was to give the office hands-on data on the companies’ current state and for the companies to avoid being sanctioned.

Mrs Oware was speaking at Veritas International Nominees and Trustees Limited’s fifth anniversary round table discussion in Accra last Thursday.

The discussion was under the theme “Doing Business in Ghana: A Legal Perspective”.

“If you disclose wrong information, it will take maybe an issue coming up. And then investigation is being done because mind you, we collaborate with other agencies who also collect beneficiary information,” Mrs Oware stated.

“So, if you’ve given different names and later it turns out that you are telling a lie,there’s a penalty for that and it has an imprisonment angle as well as a fine,” she added.

Mrs Oware stressed that people could not get away with any ill they were involved in with respect to the provision of false company details as there was great collaboration coming up soon among the registration offices and that would enable them track such cases.

She indicated that the fact that companies could stop transacting businesses did not mean they were not to file their “annual returns and update us”.

“That’s a mistake many people make. You haven’t gotten businesses. Nothing really is happening but your duty is to update, as far as possible. You use your father as a director, he’s dead and in a register he is still showing as a director,” she said.

“So come and update us and say no, he’s dead. The director or the shareholder is no more interested and we’ve transferred the shares to this other person. So we always get current information on the company. That’s all we’re asking for,” she added.

Mrs Oware further hinted of a user-friendly system which was expected to come up in a year’s time, adding that it was going to be more digital than it was currently.

“You will not be walking into our offices with paper anymore but do everything online. You then print your documents wherever you are and open your bank account,” she added.

The Registrar of Companies urged people to follow the office’s website to remain informed.

Mrs Lady Ann Essuman, Supervising Director, Veritas International Nominees and Trustees Limited, cautioned companies to speak to lawyers when registering their businesses as that was very helpful.

She said it was important that a company had legal recognition in setting up a business.

Mrs Essuman also emphasised the need for the sustenance of businesses and noted that these businesses added to the economy for which reason they should be sustained.

 PHOTO BY VINCENT DZATSE