Registrar-General pleads to retain 20% of IGF

The Registrar-General’s Office wants government to increase the percentage of the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) it retains, from 13 percent to a minimum 20 percent.

The IGF, which is the office’s only source of funding, had been at 20 percent before but was later reduced to 13 percent.

But the Registrar-General, Jemima Oware, argues that this has limited the efficiency of operations of her office.

“My office is highly challenged because we don’t have the resources to work. We already have a software in place that we use to register businesses, but we have to tweak it a bit to take on the beneficiary ownership data information. However, it is quite expensive and the funds are not available because the 13-percent of IGF is too small to work with.

“We have contacted the Ministry of Finance that the IGF we earn should be increased from 13 to 20 percent, to give us enough resources to do sensitisation.”

Ms. Jemima Oware made the plea at an anti-corruption event used to commemorate the Africa United Day Against Corruption in Accra, organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative.

Speaking on the theme ‘Winning the Fight Against Corruption; A sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation’, she explained that to enable the Registrar General’s office tackle corruption, human interference must be limited to the minimum – a reason why software is being developed to make all processes electronic, but the office is beset by a serious financial crisis.

“We have expanded the provisions of beneficial ownership in the current Companies bill that is going to be laid before Parliament, and with that we are going to set out a framework where all companies will have to give us information on any beneficiary data they have and they themselves as a company may need to have a register that captures information on beneficial ownership,” she said

She further indicated that her department will have a central register that will also capture this data for references and analysis.

She indicated that there are going to be sanctions and penalties, whereby if companies fail to provide the needed kind of information it could even lead to imprisonment.

“But what I need now is resources to bring out more information on the strategies and reforms in place and make sure that people comply.”