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Accountants Act

(CHAPTER 2)

(Original Enactment: Act 26 of 1987)

REVISED EDITION 2001

(31st December 2001)

An Act to provide for the establishment of the Public Accountants Board and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore and for purposes connected therewith.

[11th February 1989]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Accountants Act.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“accounting corporation” means a company approved as an accounting corporation under section 19;

“accounting firm” means a public accountant practising on his own account or in a partnership all of whose partners are public accountants;

“Board” means the Public Accountants Board established under section 3;

“certified public accountant” means a person who is for the time being a member of the Institute;

“Chairman” means the Chairman of the Board;

“company” has the same meaning as in the Companies Act (Cap. 50);

“corporate practitioner”, in relation to an accounting corporation, means a director or an employee of the corporation who is a public accountant and practising as such in that corporation;

“costs and expenses”, in relation to any proceedings under Part V, includes —

(a)	the costs and expenses of any assessor and any advocate and solicitor appointed by the Board for proceedings before an Inquiry Committee;
(b)	such reasonable expenses as the Board may pay to witnesses; and
(c)	such reasonable expenses as are necessary for, or incidental to, the institution and conduct of proceedings before the Inquiry Committee or the Board;

“Council” means the Council of the Institute established under section 44;

“Inquiry Committee” means an Inquiry Committee appointed by the Board under section 31(1);

“Institute” means the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore;

“lay person”, in relation to an Inquiry Committee, means an architect, banker, advocate and solicitor, company director, insurer, professional engineer, medical practitioner or a person who possesses such other qualifications as may be approved by the Board;

“professional indemnity insurance” includes insurance indemnifying a public accountant or an accounting firm or accounting corporation against liability to compensate a third party who has sustained financial loss or any other damage or injury due to breach of professional duty or to professional negligence of such accountant, firm or corporation, as the case may be (including such negligence by any director of the corporation), or fraud or dishonesty;

“public accountant” means a person who is registered or deemed to be registered in accordance with this Act as a public accountant;

“public accountancy services” means the audit and reporting on financial statements and the doing of such other acts that are required by the Companies Act (Cap. 50) or any other written law to be done by an approved company auditor;

“Register of Public Accountants” means the register kept and maintained by the Board under section 10;

“Register of Public Accounting Corporations” means the register kept and maintained by the Board under section 22;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of the Board appointed under section 11(1);

“repealed Accountants Act” means the Accountants Act in force immediately before 11th February 1989;

“Society” means the Singapore Society of Accountants established under the repealed Accountants Act (Cap. 2, 1985 Ed.);

“voting share”, in relation to a company or an accounting corporation, means an issued share in the company or accounting corporation other than —

(a)

a share to which, in no circumstances, is there attached a right to vote; or

(b)

a share to which there is attached a right to vote only in one or more of the following circumstances:

(i)	during a period in which a dividend (or part of a dividend) in respect of the share is in arrear;
(ii)	upon a proposal to reduce the share capital of the company or accounting corporation;
(iii)	upon a proposal that affects rights attached to the share;
(iv)	upon a proposal to wind up the company or accounting corporation;
(v)	upon a proposal for the disposal of the whole of the property, business and undertakings of the company or accounting corporation;
(vi)	during the winding up of the company or accounting corporation. [48/98; 37/2000]