Singapore legislation
Section 75
Section 75
Accounting records and systems of control
(1)
The trustee‑manager of a registered business trust must cause to be kept such accounting records and other records as will sufficiently explain the transactions by the trustee‑manager entered into on behalf of the registered business trust and financial position of the registered business trust and enable true and fair accounts and any documents required to be attached to the accounts to be prepared from time to time, and must cause those records to be kept in such manner as to enable them to be conveniently and properly audited.
(2)
The trustee‑manager of a registered business trust must retain the records mentioned in subsection (1) for at least 5 years from the end of the financial year in which the transactions or operations to which those records relate are completed.
(3)
The trustee‑manager of a registered business trust must devise and maintain a system of internal accounting controls sufficient to provide a reasonable assurance that —
assets that are part of the trust property of the registered business trust are safeguarded against loss from unauthorised use or disposition; and
transactions by the trustee‑manager entered into on behalf of or purported to be entered into on behalf of the registered business trust are properly authorised and that they are recorded as necessary to permit the preparation of true and fair accounts and to maintain accountability of assets.
(4)
The records mentioned in subsection (1) must be kept at the registered office of the trustee‑manager of a registered business trust or at any other place that it thinks fit and must at all times be open to inspection by the directors of the trustee‑manager.
(5)
If accounting records and other records are kept by the trustee‑manager of a registered business trust at a place outside Singapore, the trustee‑manager must send to and keep at a place in Singapore, and make available at all times for inspection by the directors of the trustee‑manager, such statements and returns with respect to the business dealt with in the records so kept as will enable to be prepared true and fair accounts and any documents required to be attached to the accounts.
(6)
The court may in any particular case order that the accounting records and other records of a registered business trust be open to inspection by a public accountant acting for a director of the trustee‑manager of the registered business trust, but only upon a written undertaking given to the court that information acquired by the public accountant during the public accountant’s inspection will not be disclosed by the public accountant to any person other than that director.
(7)
Any trustee‑manager of a registered business trust which contravenes subsection (1), (2), (3), (4) or (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000.
(8)
Any officer of the trustee‑manager who knowingly contravenes or permits or authorises the contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.