Companies decree outlines roles, penalties

Ropate Valemei
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

THE operation of the regulators enforcing the Companies Decree 2013 has been consolidated and simplified.

During a briefing in Suva recently, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) Bruce Cowley said the Ministry of Justice had a small role in the registration of liquidators and auditors while the relevant regulators were the Reserve Bank of Fiji and the Registrar of Companies.

Mr Cowley said RBF was responsible for the administration of takeovers, regulation of securities exchanges and central depository, regulation of securities industry licences, capital raisings, managing investment schemes, insider trading, offences (in conjunction with the registrar) and investigations, and information-gathering.

He said the registrar was responsible for administering the remainder if the decree as well as offences, investigation and information-gathering in conjunction with the RBF.

Meanwhile, a penalty regime was also stated at the briefing.

He said if a person committed an act that he or she was forbidden to do by or under a provision of the decree was guilty of the offence.

"A person would be liable to pay a penalty not exceeding the maximum penalty prescribed for the contravention of that provision in accordance with the decree, unless a provision of the decree provides that the person is or is not guilty of an offence," he said.

"The maximum penalty is the amount calculated by multiplying the prescribed number of penalty units attributable to the contravention of a provision by the prescribed amount for a penalty unit, being $100 or such other amount prescribed by the minister."

Mr Cowley said the penalty that the court may impose was a fine not exceeding five times the maximum amount that the court could otherwise impose as a penalty for that offence when a company was convicted of an offence against the decree.