Mind Forum to Discuss Duties of Directors Under New Companies Act

In light of the new Companies Act, which will come on stream on February 1, the Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) has embarked on a series of sensitization programmes to inform company directors and officers about their statutory obligations under the Act.
The next sensitization session will be held at the Management Institute of National Development (MIND) headquarters on Old Hope Road on January 28 as part of the MIND ‘Friday Policy Forum’. The topic for Friday’s discussion will be: ‘The Responsibilities of Directors and other Officers Under the New Companies Act’.
Judith Ramgolan Chong, Chief Executive Officer of the ORC, said that of significance in the Act, “is that directors’ duty in the Act is of a higher standard than under the 1965 Act, primarily because their ‘duty of care’ as directors has been codified.it is [now] set out in the Companies Act.”
In speaking to JIS News, the CEO said that part of the “duty of care” includes the regulation that directors have a responsibility to notify the ORC of the appointment of a company secretary.
Prior to the new Act, Mrs. Ramlogan Chong explained, “companies always appointed company secretaries, but there was no requirement for the ORC to be notified of the appointment, but under the 2004 Act, there is the requirement that within 15 days of the appointment or change of the company secretary that the ORC be notified.”
Also of significance under the Act, is the responsibility of directors to re-register a public company if it does not have a share capital of at least $500,000 and in which case, the company has to be registered as a private company.
A number of other topics that relate to the duty of care of directors under the Act will also be discussed at the forum, she added.
The MIND ‘Friday Policy Forum’, which began in 2002, will run throughout the year at the Institute, and is aimed at facilitating the transference of information on matters of national importance.