The Board Chairman of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), Rex Owusu Marfo known widely as Rex Omar, has hinted that the new board is ready to crack the whip and chase the previous members over misappropriated funds belonging to the organization without documentation and approvals.
According to him, the previous regime under the leadership of Carlos Sakyi, K.K. Kabobo and others misappropriated funds to the tune of GHc 2,113,803.93, made up of bank transactions and several withdrawals without documentations and that has caused the organization dearly.
“An amount of GHc55,000.00 was taken out of the GHAMRO account to purchase a Toyota Sequiore vehicle without the knowledge and approval of the then board members. Also another amount of GHc51,650.00 was paid to Motiopix for members’ Identification Cards without documentation and provisions of the intended service.” Rex Omar.
The Board Chairman of GHAMRO gave the hint at a press conference held in Accra over the weekend, as the organization sensitized new board members and musicians in general, on the way forwards of the organization.
The Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) is a management organization licensed by the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department in December 2012 as provided by the Copyright Action 2005, Act 690, to collect and manage royalties on behalf of registered musicians in Ghana.
Captain Jonathan, a member of the board also explained that measures are far in place to protect, promote and develop the collection and distribution of music royalties for the benefit of all right owners.
“I want to take this opportunity to urge music users, especially radio and television broadcasting stations, hotels, night clubs to pay their copyrights fees to GHAMRO, so that creators and other right owners can be fairly compensated for the use of their works.” He explained.
The new board members comprising Captain Jonathan, Tic Tac and Madam Diana Hordson and others, however stated that new structures are being put in place improve on the operations of the organization and help minimize the rate of disruption amongst members.
