GFA Lawyer Questions Gov’t. (II) Over Liquidator Appointment

Ms. Amanda Akuokor Clinton

This is a continuation of yesterday's piece by Ms Amanda Akuokor Clinton Esq. Clinton, Amoo-Lamptey, Barnsbury Chambers, questioning government over the appointment of the registrar of companies as the official liquidator of the GFA.

Furthermore, in cases where it has been suggested that a company was being used to perpetrate fraud, the court's answer in Ghana has never been the dissolution of the company. Rather, the posture of the courts has been to “lift the veil of incorporation” in order to make individual officers behinds the company liable for the said fraud Re Darby; Ex parte Broughton [1911] 1 KB 95. This approach by the court has not been adopted by government or the judiciary in GFA's case.

In terms of law, there is also a general reluctance by the courts to wind up a company that is solvent as was stated in Billy v Kuwor 1991 1 GLR 522.

Although some members of the Executive Committee leadership team have been accused, at least 13 leadership team members remain untainted and unaccused and Article 19 (2)(c) of the 1992 Constitution states that every person accused of committing an offence is innocent of the crime until the crime is proved or he pleads guilty. It is also the duty of the court to make those who (individually) commit crimes accountable, not wind down an entire company whose remaining untainted leadership team can run the operation of that company.

The leadership team at GFA is composed of at least at least 17 Executive Committee members, 13 of which remain completely untainted, unaccused and were in a perfect position to win back the public's confidence following the resignation of the former president of the GFA. The 13 Executive Committee members had in 4 days since the resignation of their former President, consulted extensively in order to start mapping and introducing monumental structural changes in collaboration with all stakeholders and key international consultants.

I know personally that the remaining Executive Committee members that are not implicated in the scandal had begun to put forward a restructuring timetable and roadmap to be handled by the management of GFA in consultation with other groups and stakeholders; an organizational development and stakeholder relations plan; compliance and legal risk management system; regulatory and policy reforms and a plan to overhaul the corporate governance of the organization at all levels.

Yet the judiciary in Ghana is starting the process of winding down a solvent company that is capable of being run by that remaining Executive leadership team.

The Attorney General, in her own ex parte submission in court, alleged that the GFA had become the de facto property of one man, which is the past president of the GFA. She further alleged that he had rewritten the rules of the organization. If that's the case, then why not allow a leadership team of at least 13 untainted Executive Committee members to lead and turn the company around, which is a standard company policy.