The Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) is to undertake inspection of all businesses and companies operating in the Country beginning Tuesday, September 8, 2015.
The exercise to last three months, would require sole proprietors, partners, company secretaries, directors, shareholders, local managers and auditors of companies to provide copies of their company’s Certificate of Incorporation, Commencement of Business, Annual Returns and evidence of current renewal of business registration to the team for inspection.
A statement issued by the RGD said companies would also be required to provide their current audited accounts or nil returns.
“The Filing of Annual Returns is mandatory as stated in Section 122 (1 & 2) of the Companies Act, 1963, (Act 179), that a Company shall file its Annual Returns eighteen months after Incorporation and once, at least in every year thereafter,” the statement, signed by RGD’s Public Relations Officer, Constance Adomaa Takyi, said.
It added that all businesses and companies which were registered with RGD before 5th December, 2011 but have not as yet updated their records in the eRegistrar database, are required to update their records with the Department before Wednesday, 30th December, 2015.
“Furthermore, Businesses and Companies which do not update their businesses would automatically be considered as being inactive and serve as notice to the Registrar-General that such businesses should be stricken off the Register. Once this is done, the name would fall into the Public Domain to be re-used by any other person or corporate body.”
According to the RGD, the update exercise is free, apart from fees to be paid for renewing the businesses or filing of annual returns for the number of years in default.
“Businesses are to identify Company Inspectors from the Department by their staff identification tags before they are allowed to inspect their books.”
Source: Graphic