Singapore legislation
Clause 75
Clause 75
Accounting records and systems of control
(1)
The trustee-manager of a registered business trust shall 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 thereto to be prepared from time to time, and shall 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 shall retain the records referred to in subsection (1) for 7 years after the completion of the transactions or operations to which they respectively relate.
(3)
The trustee-manager of a registered business trust shall 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 referred to in subsection (1) shall be kept at the registered office of the trustee-manager of a registered business trust or at such other place as it thinks fit and shall 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 shall 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 thereto.
(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 an undertaking in writing given to the court that information acquired by the public accountant during his inspection shall not be disclosed by him 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.