236. Procedure and powers of inspector

If an inspector appointed to investigate the affairs of a company thinks it necessary for the purposes of the investigation to investigate also the affairs of any other corporation which is or has at any relevant time been deemed to be or to have been related to that company by virtue of section 6, the inspector has power to do so, and the inspector must report on the affairs of the other corporation so far as the inspector thinks the results of the investigation thereof are relevant to the investigation of the affairs of the company.

Every officer and agent of a corporation the affairs of which are being investigated under this Part must, if required by an inspector appointed under this Part, produce to the inspector all books and documents in the officer’s or agent’s custody or power and must give to the inspector all assistance in connection with the investigation which he or she is reasonably able to give.

An inspector may, by notice in the prescribed form, require any officer or agent of any corporation whose affairs are being investigated pursuant to this Part to appear for examination on oath or affirmation (which the inspector is hereby authorised to administer) in relation to its business; and the notice may require the production of all books and documents in the custody or under the control of that officer or agent.

An inspector who, pursuant to this section, requires the production of all books and documents in the custody or power or under the control of an officer or agent of any corporation whose affairs are being investigated under or pursuant to this Part —

If an inspector has reasonable grounds for believing that a director or past director of the company or of a corporation which is or has at any time been deemed to be or to have been related to that company by virtue of section 6 (called in this subsection the related corporation) whose affairs the inspector is investigating maintains or has maintained a bank account of any description, whether alone or jointly with another person and whether in Singapore or elsewhere, into or out of which there has been paid any money which has been in any way connected with any act or omission or series of acts or omissions, which on the part of that director or past director constituted misconduct (whether fraudulent or not towards that company or that related corporation or its members), an inspector may require the director or past director to produce to the inspector all documents in the director’s or past director’s possession or under his or her control relating to that bank account.

If any officer or agent of any corporation, the affairs of which are being investigated pursuant to this Part, fails to comply with the requirements of any notice issued under subsection (3) or fails or refuses to answer any question which is put to him or her by an inspector with respect to the affairs of the corporation or that officer or agent is a director or past director to whom subsection (4A) applies, if he or she fails to comply with a requirement of an inspector under that subsection, the inspector may certify the failure or refusal under the hand of the inspector to the Court, which may thereupon inquire into the case and, after hearing any witnesses against or on behalf of the alleged offender and any statement offered in defence, punish the offender in like manner as if the offender had been guilty of contempt of the Court.

No person, who is or has formerly been an officer or agent of a corporation the affairs of which are being investigated under this Part, is entitled to refuse to answer any question which is relevant or material to the investigation on the ground that the person’s answer might tend to incriminate him or her but if the person claims that the answer to any question, might incriminate him or her and but for this subsection the person would have been entitled to refuse to answer the question, the answer to the question may not be used in any subsequent criminal proceedings except in the case of a charge against the person for making a false statement in answer to that question.

Subject to subsection (6), any person is entitled to refuse to answer a question on the ground that the answer might tend to incriminate him or her.

An inspector may cause notes of any examination under this Part to be recorded and reduced to writing and to be read to or by and signed by the person examined and any such signed notes may except in the case of any answer which that person would not have been required to give but for subsection (6) thereafter be used in evidence in any legal proceedings against that person.