NGO challenges Guiness, GBL merger
Gilbert Boyefio
08/11/2006
A Fast Track High Court in Accra is expected to give ruling next month on whether the Security and Exchange Commission should be compelled to re-examine if Ghana's securities laws have been breached by Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited.
The ruling on an application for mandamus (an order from a high court to a lower court or to an authority instructing it to perform a specific action or duty) will be heard December 7, 2006.
The application was filed by ThinkGhana, an NGO dedicated to good corporate governance, headed by Joe Aboagye Debrah, a former employee of Guinness Ghana Limited, who has filed several cases against the company.
In court yesterday, Counsel for ThinkGhana, Kwaku Osafo-Buabeng, told the court that the SEC did not investigate the complaint brought before it by his client. Citing PNDC Law 333 and Act 590, he argued that it is never true that a complainant has to be an affected person or party to the case before the complaint could be heard.
He said by proceedings a respondent in an application of judicial review is not entitled to file for amendment. He said the application should be struck out.
Abena Bonsu, Counsel for the SEC, in her counter argument told the court that Mr. Debrah who is representing ThinkGhana, does not have the legal right to make a complaint. "For a person to qualify to make a complaint he has to have a legal right, a public duty to perform, a demand to make it", she said.
She argued that Mr. Debrah is neither an interested party in the case, a shareholder nor a director of the company to make a complaint. "A complaint should be made in good faith", she added.
Ms. Bonsu told the court that to give Mr. Debrah the benefit of the doubt, although he did not qualify to make a complaint, the SEC made an enquiry into an application he brought before it last year, but he was not satisfied with its outcome and requested another enquiry which the Commission turned down.
ThinkGhana is seeking the court to compel the SEC to investigate the acquisition by Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited of Ghana Breweries Limited, to establish whether securities laws of Ghana have been breached and also for the SEC to be compelled to apply the law and sanction defaulters for the breaches of securities laws and regulations that have been occasioned thereby.
08/11/2006
A Fast Track High Court in Accra is expected to give ruling next month on whether the Security and Exchange Commission should be compelled to re-examine if Ghana's securities laws have been breached by Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited.
The ruling on an application for mandamus (an order from a high court to a lower court or to an authority instructing it to perform a specific action or duty) will be heard December 7, 2006.
The application was filed by ThinkGhana, an NGO dedicated to good corporate governance, headed by Joe Aboagye Debrah, a former employee of Guinness Ghana Limited, who has filed several cases against the company.
In court yesterday, Counsel for ThinkGhana, Kwaku Osafo-Buabeng, told the court that the SEC did not investigate the complaint brought before it by his client. Citing PNDC Law 333 and Act 590, he argued that it is never true that a complainant has to be an affected person or party to the case before the complaint could be heard.
He said by proceedings a respondent in an application of judicial review is not entitled to file for amendment. He said the application should be struck out.
Abena Bonsu, Counsel for the SEC, in her counter argument told the court that Mr. Debrah who is representing ThinkGhana, does not have the legal right to make a complaint. "For a person to qualify to make a complaint he has to have a legal right, a public duty to perform, a demand to make it", she said.
She argued that Mr. Debrah is neither an interested party in the case, a shareholder nor a director of the company to make a complaint. "A complaint should be made in good faith", she added.
Ms. Bonsu told the court that to give Mr. Debrah the benefit of the doubt, although he did not qualify to make a complaint, the SEC made an enquiry into an application he brought before it last year, but he was not satisfied with its outcome and requested another enquiry which the Commission turned down.
ThinkGhana is seeking the court to compel the SEC to investigate the acquisition by Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited of Ghana Breweries Limited, to establish whether securities laws of Ghana have been breached and also for the SEC to be compelled to apply the law and sanction defaulters for the breaches of securities laws and regulations that have been occasioned thereby.
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