The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has begun processes of striking out 2,584 dormant and defaulting Companies from its Companies’ Register.
This exercise is being carried out in accordance with Section 289 of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) which connotes that a Company can be stricken off the Companies Register for failing to file its Annual Returns on time or failing to notify the Registrar of Companies of a change in the Company’s Registered Office and Principal Place of Business.
In a statement issued, last week, the ORC stated that the exercise which will continue to the end of December 2022, is part of the second phase of the clean-up exercise which began in the early part of the year.
“These dormant Companies failed to comply with the directive issued by the Registrar of Companies for all Companies to file their Annual Returns and Financial Statements or risk being stricken off the Companies Register. The Office has already stricken off 2,788 Companies and made them inactive during the first phase of the clean-up exercise out of the over 100,000 dormant Companies earmarked for the strike off,’ the statement noted.
“This means that those dormant companies cannot be electronically searched on or carry out any changes on their Company information in the Register awaiting a full winding up after 12 years. Such Companies can only be restored by an Order of the High Court to the ORC within 12 years after the publication of the strike off in the Companies Bulletin,” it added.
The affected Companies include Private/Public Companies Limited and Unlimited by Shares, Private/Public Companies Limited by Guarantee (Schools, Churches, Associations, Unions, Fun Clubs etc.), Professional Bodies and External Companies.
The ORC is also urging all defaulting and dormant Companies whether in operation or not, to file their Annual Returns by 30th December, 2022 to avoid being removed from the Companies Register by the end of the year, 2022.
Furthermore, Companies and Businesses registered between 1960 to 2011 and are yet to carry out updates of their records with the ORC dubbed ‘re-registration’ are encouraged to do so by the end of the year.
N5Companies are entreated to change their Auditors who have served for 6 years in compliance to the provisions of the Companies Act to avoid sanctions.
“Note that the penalty for late filing of Annual Returns is GH¢450.00 and fees for filing Annual Returns and Beneficial Ownership information remains GH¢50.00 and GH¢60.00 respectively,” it said.
