251 Firms Dragged Before Director of Public Prosecutions For Non-Compliance With Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Commission has submitted a list of two hundred and fifty-one (251) public and private firms to the Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa, for defaulting registration with the Commission.

According to the Commission, the submitted list is only 2.5 per cent of all firms that have failed to comply with Section 46(3) of the Data protections Act which clearly states that “ A data controller shall register with the Commission”.

The Executive Director of the Commission, Patricia Adusei Poku said the 251 firms submitted to the Director of Public Prosecution received notices from the commission to put themselves in good standing with the commission within fourteen days but failed.

Prior to the 14-day notice, she said the firms were given an amnesty of six months to do the needful but didn’t.

“Since they have failed, today, we came to present the list of these defaulting institutions to the Public Prosecutor and the value of the amount that they owe-1.5million cedis. We have been having discussions with the office of Public Prosecution to accept our list and prosecute these defaulting individuals”, she said.

She said the engagement with the Mrs Yvonne Atakora-Obuobisa birthed an agreement to offer the firms another “opportunity by writing to the firms and quoting our Section 56 which gives us the power to prosecute them if they are defaulting”.

In all, she said some eight hundred firms have not registered with the commission.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini