2,000 companies at risk of being struck

The Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) has warned that approximately 2,000 delinquent companies are at risk of being removed from its register and have given them three months to comply with provisions under the Companies Act.

The notice of removal, which takes effect in March, was published in The Gleaner on Friday.

The COJ said that it has “reasonable cause” to believe that many of the companies named are not carrying on business or in operation.

As a result, it said that it will act in accordance with the provisions of Section 337 of the Companies Act and the named companies will be dissolved “unless cause is shown to the contrary”.

Shellie Leon, acting CEO and registrar at the COJ, told The Gleaner on Friday that companies are struck from the register when a field officer visits the registered officer address on record for a delinquent company and does not find the company there and there is no intelligence obtained that the company is operating elsewhere.

Additionally, companies are also struck of when proprietors request removal from the register or wind up their affairs and dissolve the entities.

COVID-19 relief amnesty

Since April 2020, a total of 4,934 companies have been struck from the register. This represents approximately seven per cent of the 69,631 registered companies across the island.

Between April 2021 and March this year, 2,540 companies were struck down. Since April 2022, some 317 companies have been removed.

Meanwhile, Leon said that the COJ has embarked on a COVID-19 relief amnesty aimed at giving entrepreneurs the opportunity for a fresh start, without the albatross of court action, late fees, fines and penalties.

“It drives entrepreneurship and innovation as persons feel emboldened and empowered to try again or to embark on new ventures. It promotes responsible exit and seamless re-entry,” she said in an emailed response to The Gleaner.

Further, she said that previous amnesties have received “moderate responsiveness”.

“There is an ongoing cry for the agency and/or our parent ministry to offer further amnesties. At the end of such initiatives, there is always an outcry for an extension as has happened in this case for the COVID-19 relief, where there have been several extensions, with the last one closing January 31, 2023,” she said.

The acting CEO added that outside of the COVID-19 relief programme, companies that request removal are required to file outstanding returns and pay the relevant fees.

For those companies removed by the registrar, revenues lost would include filing fees, late fees and penalties.

Leon did not indicate the projected monetary loss to the COJ.

She said that oftentimes, several of these companies later request to be restored and a precondition for this is the updating of the company files.

In the last calendar year, 52 companies were restored to the register of companies, and for this calendar year, up to November 30, some 44 companies were restored.

At the same time, Leon said that legislation to be tabled in the coming year will focus on the “removal of barriers to investment for persons wishing to invest in Jamaica and for Jamaicans wishing to do business overseas as well as the retention of correspondent banking relations”.

However, she said that these benefits will be accompanied by enhanced responsibilities to include an increased demand for transparency, good governance and accountability from companies and increased sanctions in the event of non-compliance, longer periods of imprisonment, significantly improved fines and penalties, and increased administrative sanctions such as striking off for non-compliance.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com