KOFI ANOKYE OWUSU-DARKO (BLOG2)

  Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has been embraced and enshrined in the Ghanaian legal system through various legislations such as the Alternative Dispute Act, 2010 (Act 798), Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), Land Act, 2010 (Act 1036), Chieftaincy Act, 2008 (Act 759), Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459) as well as the High Court (Civil Procedure) (Amendment) Rules, 2020. Relevant Sections give legal justification to the practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution. The use of the word “Alternative” in the various legislations except for the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766) which refers to “Appropriate", suggest that the various dispute resolution methods such as Negotiation, Mediation, Facilitation and Arbitration are “alternatives” to judicial litigation at the law courts and that the judicial process is the first point of call to resolve disputes. This is most inappropriate resulting in litigation, first being taken to the courts for it to be referred for mediation or arbitration, ...

  I just read the news in the Business & Financial Times of Monday, January 23, 2023 captioned “COCOBOD default further dampens investor confidence” whereby some banks have debited the accounts of their customers after crediting them with income accrued and realised from Cocoa Bills investments, that is, reversed the credit entries. Also reading a news item on MyJoyOnline, on January 23, 2023 captioned “ Cocoa bills default: BoG, COCOBOD agree to allow banks to use COCOBOD’s deposits to pay retail customers”, it says the Bank of Ghana, initially directed banks not to pay customers their maturing cocoa bills investments, following cash flow challenges facing COCOBOD. If it is true the reversals were done with the directives of the Bank of Ghana, the banks should have “positively” defied that directive. This is so wrong by the laws of banking, banking 101, and no bank can debit the account of a customer to pay a third party or make an investment without mandate and not even the ...

  Section 120 of the National Pensions Act, 2008 mandates that Occupational Pension Schemes, Provident Fund Schemes, Personal Pensions Schemes and other Privately –Managed Pension Schemes are only managed by Trustees licensed by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA). Trustees as fiduciaries, owe undivided loyalty to the members of the schemes, the Contributors, and must avoid conflicts of interest unless otherwise authorised by the Contributors after full disclosure. All things being equal, it is the duty of the Trustee to seek the interest of Scheme Members with members, ideally hoping that Trustees with the supervision of the Regulator, National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), the custodian of the law, will do the right thing. The fact that now Government Securities are not as safe as was envisaged, with the related Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), every Contributor, Scheme Member, to a privately managed scheme should take personal interest as benef...