Singapore legislation
Section 15A
Section 15A
Powers to verify statement, document or information, etc.
(1)
The powers under this section may be exercised only for the purposes of inquiring into or ascertaining the truth or correctness of any statement, document or information made or provided by any person to a Director or a person authorised by the Director (called an authorised person) in connection with —
any membership of the Scheme, or any payment, withdrawal or transfer under the Scheme; or
a claim for any payment, reimbursement or lost income under this Act.
(2)
A Director or an authorised person may, at any reasonable time, do any of the following, without involving any search of any property or person:
enter any premises;
require any person to provide or give access to, without charge, any document (in whatever form) or information reasonably required for any purpose in subsection (1);
inspect and make copies of or take extracts from any such document;
take possession of any such document if, in the opinion of the Director or authorised person —
the inspection or copying of or extraction from the document cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
the document may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
the document may be required as evidence in any proceedings instituted or commenced for any of the purposes of, or in connection with, this Act.
(3)
The power to require a person to provide any document or information under subsection (2)(b) includes the power —
to require the person, or any person who is or was an officer or employee of that person, to provide an explanation of the document or information;
if the document or information is not provided, to require the person to state, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, where it is; and
if the information is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the information to be made available to the Director or authorised person (as the case may be) in legible form.
(4)
For the purposes of subsection (2), if any document is kept in electronic form, the power of a Director, or an authorised person who is a public officer, includes the following powers:
the power to inspect the document includes the power to —
access any computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document is stored; and
require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or other equipment to provide assistance in gaining such access;
the power to take possession of the document includes the power to —
make copies of the document in legible or electronic form; and
transfer the information from the document to a disk, tape or other storage device.
(5)
If the Director or authorised person is unable to make copies of the document, or transfer the information from the document, under subsection (4)(b), the Director or an authorised person who is a public officer may —
seize the computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document or material is stored, as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act; and
require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or other equipment to disclose any password or access code for gaining access to the document stored in the computer or other equipment.