Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1952-1953 — Page 26

PART VIII

NEW LEGISLATION

Authorized Auditors Board.

39. A new Board known as the Authorized Auditors Board was set up under the provisions of the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 1952 enacted in September. This Ordinance amended Sect. 131(3) of the principal Ordinance relating to the Authorized Auditors List and introduced additional sections providing for the constitution duties and powers of the new Board. The effect of the Ordinance was to vest the responsi- bility for admitting auditors to the Authorized List in a Board consisting of the Registrar of Companies (Chairman), the Accountant General, a Legal Adviser and six other members to be appointed by the Governor of whom five must themselves be Authorized Auditors. The responsibility for maintenance of the List of Authorized Auditors is placed on the Registrar of Companies, and the Authorized List is to consist of two parts: Part I containing the names of all persons authorized to audit accounts kept in English, and Part II containing the names of all persons authorized to audit accounts kept in Chinese. The new Sect. 131(3) permits the employment only of such Auditors as are included in the Authorized List, for the audit of the accounts of companies, and requires the Registrar of Companies to publish the Authorized List annually in the Gazette and also to publish in the Gazette the names of persons added to or erased from, the Authorized List. This Board replaces the two (non statutory) committees known as the Authorized Auditors Advisory Committee (Part I of the List) under the chairmanship of the Registrar of Companies, and the Chinese Auditors Advisory Committee (Part II of the List) under the chairman- ship of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, which previously functioned in an advisory capacity in connexion with the admission of Auditors to the Authorized List under the old Sect. 131(3).

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