PART 7 | Appointment of Controller and other officers |
27.—(1) The Minister may appoint any person to be the Controller for the purposes of this Act.| (2) The Controller must, subject to any general or special directions of the Minister, perform such duties as are imposed and may exercise such powers as are conferred upon the Controller by this Act or any other written law. |
| (3) The Controller may, after consulting the Minister, appoint by name or office such number of Deputy Controllers, Assistant Controllers and other officers as the Controller considers necessary for the purpose of assisting the Controller in the performance of the Controller’s duties and the exercise of the Controller’s powers under this Act. |
| (4) The Controller may delegate the exercise of all or any of the powers conferred or duties imposed upon the Controller by this Act (except the power of delegation conferred by this subsection) to any officer appointed under subsection (3), subject to such conditions or limitations as the Controller may specify. |
| (5) In exercising any of the powers of enforcement under this Act, an authorised officer must on demand produce to the person against whom the authorised officer is acting the authority issued to the authorised officer by the Controller. |
| (6) The Controller, every officer appointed under subsection (3) and every authorised officer is deemed to be a public servant for the purposes of the Penal Code 1871. |
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| Obligation of confidentiality |
28.—(1) A person must not disclose any information which has been obtained by him or her in the performance of his or her duties or the exercise of his or her powers under this Act, unless such disclosure is made —| (a) | with the permission of the person from whom the information was obtained or, where the information is the confidential information of a third person, with the permission of the third person; | | (b) | for the purpose of the administration or enforcement of this Act; | | (c) | for the purpose of assisting any public officer or officer of any other statutory board in the investigation or prosecution of any offence under any written law; or | | (d) | in compliance with the requirement of any court or any written law. |
| (2) For the purposes of this section, the reference to a person disclosing any information includes the person permitting any other person to have access to any electronic record, book, register, correspondence, information, document or other material which has been obtained by the firstmentioned person in the performance of his or her duties or the exercise of his or her powers under this Act. |
| (3) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both. |
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| Access to computers and data |
29.—(1) The Controller or an authorised officer is entitled at any time to —| (a) | have access to and inspect and check the operation of any computer system and any associated apparatus or material which he or she has reasonable cause to suspect is or has been in use in connection with any offence under this Act; and | | (b) | use or caused to be used any such computer system to search any data contained in or available to such computer system. |
(2) The Controller or an authorised officer is entitled to require —| (a) | the person by whom or on whose behalf the Controller or authorised officer has reasonable cause to suspect the computer is or has been so used; or | | (b) | any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, apparatus or material, |
| to provide the Controller or authorised officer with such reasonable technical and other assistance as the Controller or authorised officer may require for the purposes of subsection (1). |
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(3) Any person who —| (a) | obstructs the lawful exercise of the powers under subsection (1); or | | (b) | fails to comply with a request under subsection (2), |
| shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both. |
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| Production of documents, etc. |
30. The Controller or an authorised officer has, for the purposes of the execution of this Act, power to do all or any of the following:| (a) | require the production of any identification document from any person in relation to any offence under this Act; | | (b) | make such inquiry as may be necessary to ascertain whether the provisions of this Act have been complied with. |
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| Obstruction of Controller or authorised officer |
| 31. Any person who obstructs, impedes, assaults or interferes with the Controller or any authorised officer in the performance of his or her functions under this Act shall be guilty of an offence. |
| Offences by bodies corporate, etc. |
32.—(1) Where an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved —| (a) | to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer; or | | (b) | to be attributable to any neglect on the officer’s part, |
| the officer as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. |
| (2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with the member’s functions of management as if the member were a director of the body corporate. |
(3) Where an offence under this Act committed by a partnership is proved —| (a) | to have been committed with the consent or connivance of a partner; or | | (b) | to be attributable to any neglect on the partner’s part, |
| the partner as well as the partnership shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. |
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(4) Where an offence under this Act committed by an unincorporated association (other than a partnership) is proved —| (a) | to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer of the unincorporated association or a member of its governing body; or | | (b) | to be attributable to any neglect on the part of such an officer or member, |
| the officer or member as well as the unincorporated association shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. |
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(5) In this section —| “body corporate” includes a limited liability partnership; |
“officer” —| (a) | in relation to a body corporate, means any director, partner, member of the committee of management, chief executive, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate and includes any person purporting to act in any such capacity; or | | (b) | in relation to an unincorporated association (other than a partnership), means the president, the secretary, or any member of the committee of the unincorporated association, or any person holding a position analogous to that of president, secretary or member of such a committee and includes any person purporting to act in any such capacity; |
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| “partner” includes a person purporting to act as a partner. |
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| (6) Regulations may provide for the application of any provision of this section, with such modifications as the Minister considers appropriate, to any body corporate or unincorporated association formed or recognised under the law of a territory outside Singapore. |
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| 33. Any person guilty of an offence under this Act for which no penalty is expressly provided shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both. |
| Consent of Public Prosecutor |
| 34. No prosecution in respect of any offence under this Act may be instituted except by or with the consent of the Public Prosecutor. |
| 35. Despite any provision to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, a District Court has jurisdiction to try any offence under this Act and has power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of the offence. |
36.—(1) The Controller may compound any offence under this Act that is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding the lower of the following:| (a) | one half of the amount of the maximum fine that is prescribed for the offence; | | (b) | $5,000. |
| (2) On payment of the sum of money, no further proceedings may be taken against that person in respect of the offence. |
| (3) The Minister may make regulations prescribing the offences that may be compounded. |
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| 37. The Minister may, by order in the Gazette, exempt, subject to such terms and conditions as the Minister thinks fit, any person or class of persons from all or any of the provisions of this Act. |
| 38. The Minister may make regulations to prescribe anything which is required to be prescribed under this Act (except sections 16Q and 22) and generally for the carrying out of the provisions of this Act (except sections 16Q and 22). [5/2021] |
39.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), this Act applies to all acts or transactions done in relation to an electronic record, including the generation, signing or communication of an electronic record, made on or after 1 July 2010.(2) If, immediately before 1 July 2010 —| (a) | by virtue of section 8 of the repealed Electronic Transactions Act (Cap. 88, 1999 Revised Edition) (called in this section the repealed Act), an electronic signature was treated as having satisfied a rule of law requiring a signature, or providing certain consequences if a document is not signed; | | (b) | by virtue of section 9 of the repealed Act, an electronic record was treated as having satisfied a rule of law requiring certain documents, records or information to be retained; or | | (c) | by virtue of section 15 of the repealed Act, an electronic record was treated as having been despatched or received, |
| the provisions of this Act do not affect that treatment of the electronic signature or electronic record, as the case may be. |
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