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No. S 429

Societies Act

(Chapter 311)

Societies (Amendment) Regulations 1998

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 34 of the Societies Act, the Minister for Home Affairs hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Societies (Amendment) Regulations 1998 and shall come into operation on 1st January 1999.

New regulation 1A

2. The Societies Regulations (Rg 1) (referred to in these Regulations as the principal Regulations) are amended by inserting, immediately after regulations 1, the following regulation:

“Definitions

1A.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —

“approved company auditor” means a person approved as a company auditor under section 9 of the Companies Act (Cap. 50);

“fund-raising appeal” means the soliciting or receiving from the public or any class of the public or from members of the society of any money or property (whether for consideration or otherwise) which is made in association with a representation that the whole or any part of its proceeds is to be applied for —

(a)	charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes; or
(b)	any specific purposes, whether or not charitable, benevolent or philanthropic,

but does not include the collection of membership fees from members of the society;

“proceeds”, in relation to a fund-raising appeal, means all money or other property given (whether for consideration or otherwise) in response to the fund-raising appeal.”.

New regulations 2A, 2B and 2C

3. The principal Regulations are amended by inserting, immediately after regulation 2, the following regulations:

“Accounts

2A.—(1) The president, secretary, treasurer (or other officers holding analogous positions) of every registered society shall ensure that —

(a)

proper accounts and records of the transactions and affairs of the society are kept to show and explain all the society’s transactions and to disclose, with reasonable accuracy, the financial position of the society at any time; and

(b)

the accounts of the society for each financial year ending on or after 1st January 1999 are audited by —

(i)	the society’s auditor where the gross income or expenditure of the society does not exceed $500,000 in that financial year; or
(ii)	an approved company auditor where the gross income or expenditure of the society exceeds $500,000 in that financial year.

(2) The accounts and records referred to in paragraph (1) shall, in particular, contain —

(a)	entries showing from day to day all sums of money received and expended by the society and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure took place; and
(b)	a record of the assets and liabilities of the society.

Approved company auditor’s report

2B. The approved company auditor referred to in regulation 2A(1)(b) shall, in his report to be submitted under that regulation, state —

(a)	whether the financial statements show fairly the financial transactions and the state of affairs of the society;
(b)	whether proper accounts and other records have been kept, including records of all assets and liabilities of the society;
(c)	where any fund-raising appeal has been conducted after 1st January 1999 by the society during the financial year reported upon, whether the appeal has been carried out in accordance with regulation 2C and whether proper accounts and other records have been kept of the fund-raising appeal; and
(d)	such other matters arising out of the audit as he considers necessary.

Fund-raising appeal records

2C.—(1) The president, secretary and treasurer (or other officers holding analogous positions) of every registered society which conducts a fund-raising appeal on or after 1st January 1999 shall —

(a)	keep or cause to be kept proper accounts and other records of the fund-raising appeal; and
(b)	do all things necessary to ensure that all payments out of the proceeds are correctly made and properly authorised.

(2) All books of accounts relating to the fund-raising appeal shall be prepared and kept by the registered society on a basis consistently with generally accepted accounting principles, standards and practices.

(3) Without prejudice to paragraph (1), every society which conducts any fund-raising appeal referred to in that paragraph shall, in particular, maintain records as to —

(a)	the name of each person authorised to participate in the fund-raising appeal;
(b)	the dates on which the fund-raising appeal commenced and concluded;
(c)	the gross proceeds received in response to the fund-raising appeal;
(d)	the net proceeds applied to the purpose for which the fund-raising appeal was conducted and the means by which they are distributed; and
(e)	the items of expenditure disbursed from the proceeds.

(4) The president, secretary and treasurer (or other officers holding analogous positions) of every registered society shall, within 60 days of the conclusion of any fund-raising appeal referred to in paragraph (1) or within such extended period as may be allowed by the Registrar, furnish to the Registrar a statement of accounts (income and expenditure and balance sheet) relating to the fund-raising appeal audited by the society’s auditor.

(5) Any president, secretary and treasurer (or other officer holding an analogous position) of a registered society who fails to comply with any requirement of this regulation shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500 and, where the breach is a continuing one and relates to the failure to submit the statement of accounts within the stipulated period, to a further fine not exceeding $50 for every day after the first day during which the breach continues.”.

Amendment of regulation 3

4. Regulation 3(1) of the principal Regulations is amended by deleting sub-paragraph (b) and substituting the following sub-paragraph:

“(b)

be accompanied by a copy of the accounts (income and expenditure and balance-sheet) of the society in respect of its last financial year, duly certified by —

(i)	the society’s auditor where the gross income and expenditure of the society in its last financial year does not exceed $500,000; or
(ii)	an approved company auditor where the gross income and expenditure of the society in its last financial year exceeds $500,000,

as found by him to be correct, duly vouched and in accordance with law, together with his report in what respects he finds it incorrect, unvouched or not in accordance with law.”.

[G.N. Nos. S 295/92; S 92/93; S 442/94; S 564/95; S 540/96; S 546/97]

Made this 7th day of August 1998

PETER CHAN JER HING

Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Home Affairs,
Singapore.

[ROS 4/84; AG/LEG/SL/311/1996/1 Vol. 1]

(To be presented to Parliament under section 34(3) of the Societies Act).