GHANA Law and Practice Contributed by: Victoria Bright and Maxwell Amihere, Addison Bright Sloane
responsibility activities of the company and the expenditures of such programmes for the year. The report must be approved by the board of
It is a report on the accuracy, completeness and fairness of the company’s accounting records and financial statements, and must include specified items, such as whether the auditors received the necessary information and expla - nations for their audit, whether in the opinion of the auditors the accounts have been prepared according to the IFRS, whether they are true and fair representations of the underlying accounting records, and whether the auditor was independ - ent of the company under audit. 6.2 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Arrangements Corporate governance arrangements are dis - closed as part of the regulatory reports expected from companies. See 6.1 Financial Reporting . 6.3 Companies Registry Filings In Ghana, companies are incorporated and reg - istered by the Office of the Registrar of Compa - nies (ORC). Companies are required to file annual returns with the Registrar of Companies. A notice that a company has filed its returns will be published in the Companies Bulletin published by the Reg - istrar of Companies. There are no stipulations requiring the Registrar to make the returns them - selves publicly available, but they are available for inspection. Financial statements must not be published unless they have been approved by the board of directors and signed by two directors, and unless the directors’ and the auditor’s reports have been attached to them. Publicly listed companies are additionally required to file their financial statements with the SEC and publish a summary of financial perfor - mance quarterly in national newspapers.
directors and signed by two of them. Company’s Financial Statements
Directors prepare this in accordance with Inter - national Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These financial statements are: • the statement of financial position; • the statement of comprehensive income (including profit and loss); • the statement of changes in equity; • the statement of cash flows; and • the summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes to the accounts. Consolidated financial statements must also be prepared for companies with subsidiaries (Section 131 of Act 992). Consolidated financial statements include statements on the compa - ny’s financial position, consolidated compre - hensive income, consolidated changes in equity, consolidated cash flows and notes about the consolidated financial statements. The statements must give a true and fair over - view of the profit and loss, comprehensive income statements and the general state of affairs within the company. Both the financial statements and the consolidated financial state - ments must follow the guidelines given in the Sixth Schedule to the Act. The Auditor’s Report This is prepared by external auditors in accord - ance with international standards on auditing, as adopted by the Institute of Chartered Account - ants, Ghana.
340 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook