Author: Mak Yuen Teen

IN SEPTEMBER 2011, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) amended its rulebook to require issuers to disclose the aggregate amount of fees paid to auditors, broken down into audit and non-audit services, rather than the existing requirement to disclose just the non-audit fees paid to these auditors. The rule amendment addressed a lacuna that had existed since July 2002, when the Ninth Schedule of the Companies Act requiring the disclosure of audit fees was repealed in conjunction with accounting standards becoming mandatory under the Companies Act.

The Ministry of National Development has just released its fourth half-yearly Town Council Management Report covering the 15 town councils for the period between April and September 2012. The report is an important tool to hold town councils accountable.

IN August 2010, I published the first of two commentaries on JLJ Holdings, a Catalist company which was embroiled in a bribery scandal (“Apple case throws spotlight on corruption”, BT Aug 26, 2010). The scandal involved Andrew Ang, a former business development manager of JLJ’s wholly owned subsidiary, Jin Li Mould Manufacturing, who was accused of bribing an Apple global supply manager, Paul Devine. Ang has since disappeared and Devine has been indicted in the United States.