The Receiver Managers of the Ghana Music Right Organization (GHAMRO) explained to the media some of the challenges they have been going through since they were appointed by a court order to manage and administer the affairs of the organization.
Prior to the appointment of the receiver managers as interim administration, GHAMRO was managed by a twelve member Board of Directors from December 2012 –July 2014 and the following members acted as management for the day of day administration of the society: Carlos Sakyi as Chief Executive Officer, Kwakye Kwabena Kabobo as Deputy Executive, Amandzeba, as Deputy Executive and Mark Okraku Mantey.
The meeting which was held at the GHAMRO conference room on January 15, revealed that, GHAMRO which was licensed in 2012 to administer the music rights had nine staff members including Lucky Atiso as Account Officer, Annabelle Adu Gyamfi as Documentation Officer, Adolf Mensah as Licensing- Field Assistant, Sloopy Mike Gyamfi as IT, Hagan Awuku as Assistant IT, Nana Akua as Front Desk, Ebenezer as Security and Dora as the cleaner.
According to the appointed Administrator of GHAMRO, Mr Abraham Neutey Adjatey, there is complete absence of any logging system by the main broadcasting network making it very difficult to equitably distribute royalties based on use.
He stressed that the Documentation Department is relatively weak with the processes still manual and the level of computerization rather poor.
“There is a complete lack of information on the amount distributed for each number of right owners because the previous manager did not maintain such data required by industry norms,” he added.
He said the main users of GHAMRO works including radio, TV, hotels and restaurants have not paid royalties for the past few years, adding, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and the Ghana Hotels Association (GHA) have not been able to conclude any arrangement for payment due to frosty relationship with previous administration.
Mr Adjatey explained that the over 7000 membership of GHAMRO have been reviewed to a current 3852 members who have applied and executed Deeds of Assignment with the Society and records also indicates that a total of 261 persons applied as members between 2012- 2014 without any Deed of Assignment.
“It is our intention to have the registration opened up with the appropriate documentation so that all new members can be properly admitted through a process that is secure and consonant with practice worldwide”, he emphasized.
He said “the society has finally managed to put its past behind itself by putting in place a Board on orders of the Honourable Judge Essel in line with the Companies Act 175.”
The Ghana Music Rights Organization has scheduled 11th February, 2015 as the date for their upcoming elections and members are to take note of the timelines and activities concerning the elections.
GHAMRO was licensed in 2012 to administer the music rights in accordance with the section 49 and LI 1962 of the Copyright Act and LI to provide the establishment of Collective Management Organization and is currently the only such organization in Ghana.
