Singapore legislation
Clause 13
Clause 13
Power of Commissioner to obtain information
(1)
If the Commissioner has reasonable cause to believe that an offence under section 20(2) or (3) has been committed, he or any officer of a public authority authorised by him —
may access all buildings, places, documents, computers, computer programs and computer software (whether installed in a computer or otherwise) at any time;
may access any information, code or technology which has the capability of retransforming or unscrambling encrypted data contained in or available to such computers into readable and comprehensive format or text;
may, without fee or reward, inspect, copy or make extracts from any such document, computer, computer program, computer software or computer output;
may, at any reasonable time, inspect and check the operation of any computer, device, apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with anything to which this section applies;
may take possession of any such document, computer, device, apparatus, material, computer program or computer software where in his opinion —
the inspection, checking, copying thereof or extraction therefrom cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
any such items may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
any such items may be required as evidence in proceedings in respect of an offence under this Act or in proceedings for the recovery of duty or penalty, or in proceedings by way of an appeal against an assessment; and
may require —
the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been used, or any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of the computer, device, apparatus or material, to provide the Commissioner or officer with such reasonable assistance as he may require for the purposes of this section; and
any person in possession of decryption information to grant him access to such decryption information necessary to decrypt data required for the purposes of this section.
(2)
The Commissioner may require any person to give orally or in writing, as may be required, all such information concerning his or any other person’s transactions made in the course of a private lottery or business as may be demanded of him by the Commissioner for the purposes of this Act.
(3)
No person shall, by virtue of this section, be obliged to disclose any particulars which he is under any statutory obligation to observe secrecy.
(4)
Any person who —
without reasonable excuse, fails or neglects to comply with any notice issued by the Commissioner or any officer authorised by him under this section; or
obstructs the exercise of powers under this section,shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
(5)
In this section —
Definition
“computer” has the same meaning as in the Computer Misuse Act (Cap. 50A);
Definition
“computer output” has the same meaning as in the Computer Misuse Act.