Stop punishing Ghanaian companies when they go wrong – Adom-Otchere

Paul Adom-Otchere, legal practitioner and host of Good Evening Ghana, is advocating for a regime for Ghanaian businesses where companies that flout the laws of the land are left off the hook, ABC News can report.

Paul argued that the tendency to shut down local businesses for not adhering to regulations is leading to a situation where local businesses fail to grow into global giants to provide jobs and create wealth.

He, however, explains that when a company is found to have committed some misdeeds, the persons responsible ought to be punished and not the organisation so that it boosts our economy.

Comparing local businesses to foreign counterparts, Paul Adom Otchere noted that the support they get from their governments in terms of regulations and incentives makes them thrive and create prosperous people.

Justifying his proposition, the Good Evening Ghana show host said in an editorial, “Yes, we should not punish them because they are indigenous companies, grown to a certain level, so if the company does something wrong we should not punish them but does it mean we should not punish anybody? No! We certainly should not punish the company. We should not punish Siaw and Tata Brewery for wrongs that they may have done contrary to companies law, contrary to legislation so that we can keep the business that at the time was employing about 2000 people.”

“You can punish individuals who are responsible for some of these things, even if the person is the majority shareholder, you can still punish him…All the people whose companies have been shut, they have not gone broke, it is the 1, 200 people who they employ who go home, who have nothing to hold unto. It is them who are most affected” he said.

Adom Otchere added, “the banks that you have collapsed the owners are not broke, they are not going to go broke anytime soon. It s the people who work there who have had to go home, all they had was monthly salary of GHC2000”

Aside from protecting local businesses to flourish and compete with foreign brands, permitting local businesses to thrive irrespective of their brushes with the law, according to the legal practitioner, will make the local currency stronger.

He wondered why people will want a company like Zoomlion to fail when they are investing all they earn as revenue and profits into the local economy, unlike a foreign entity that will export its profits out causing the Cedi to lose value.

“The foreigners take the money from every Ghanaian who goes to these shops, they exchange it, they take dollars and send it back to their country and then we cry that our Cedi is crushing…Everything that has to do with Ghanaians you are giving it to foreigners, even when Ghanaians are in it we want to pull it down and give it to foreigners. Zoomlion controls Sanitation in Ghana and there are people who want it to be given to foreigners. When Zoomlion takes the money, does he export the money?” he quizzed.

His remarks were triggered by the assertions made by Archbishop Duncan Williams, General Overseer of the Action Faith Chapel International, who contends that successive Ghanaian government have gone after local businesses in an attempt to bring them down in favour of foreign interests or out of envy and jealousy.

Supporting the submissions of the Archbishop, the Good Evening Ghana show host advanced that Former President JJ Rawlings, will down in history as the leader in Ghana who superintended over the demise of local business.

He noted that this was done to protect political power and hold on to the influence the former President had as a military leader.

“Government after government come and they throw them away starting from Rawlings and he is the most guilty of this matter. JJ Rawlings is the most guilty. JJ Rawlings’ regime is the most guilty of this thing. I hope that he has regretted it by now because that was dastardly – pull down every Ghanaian because you are afraid that they are too strong to take you out of power. That was the reason as we have read in the books” he bashed.

Owner of Tata Brewery, “Mr Siaw was shut down by the JJ Rawlings people in 1979 that they said that he has some issues with taxes and the company and the assets of the company were sold to foreigners. Later on, when Mr Kufuor became the President, the family of Mr Siaw went to Court and they got some things back because the government of Mr Kufuor recognised that what was done was wrong” he cited to buttress his point.

“…That is why Duncan Williams is alleging and we agree with him that this kind of collapse is motivated by jealousy, it is motivated by envy, it is not motivated by law. It is motivated by the personal desire of a Ghanaian to see another Ghanaian who is succeding, fail and we have to change that in this country. The generation of people who are listening to me, 30 years and above, you have to have a different mindset” Adom Otchere stressed.