THE Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) on Thursday announced several new initiatives as an impetus for locally incorporated companies to comply with the corporate regulatory requirements as well as to acknowledge firms which have made the effort to comply.
For a start, ACRA will focus on the preparation of the annual financial statements, the holding of Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the filing of the Annual Returns (AR).
It encourages prompt filing of financial statements and the AR as this enables interested stakeholders, government agencies and the business community to obtain up-to-date information on the company and its financial state of health. While these three requirements are important disclosure requirements, ACRA has found this to be the top breach on the list of non-compliance by companies in Singapore.
Instead of resorting to court action, ACRA first encourages voluntary compliance through various non-penal measures and public education to emphasise the importance of these requirements and to promote the improvement of internal systems and processes. The ACRA is also implementing the Colour-coded Compliance Rating and Certificate of Compliance to recognise companies with a good record, the End of Financial Year (FY) Reminder Letters to give companies earlier reminders, and a Shorter Extension of Time (EOT) to reduce delays.
It will also release a new Directors' Handbook later this year. It is a practical hands-on guidebook to provide new or aspiring directors on the know-how in performing their statutory duties, thus promoting a higher level of corporate compliance and a heightened appreciation of good governance in companies, especially among the smaller ones.
Deputy Chief Executive of ACRA, Mr Muhammad Hidhir Abdul Majid said: 'We will continue to work closely with various stakeholders in the roll out of these initiatives, in a bid to promote good corporate governance among our locally incorporated companies, and build on our efforts to achieve optimum compliance as ACRA strives to be a leading world class business registrar.'
