PART IX
MISCELLANEOUS
41.
—(1) All notices which are required or authorised by the governing instruments of a charity to be given to a governing board member, member or subscriber may be sent by post, and, if sent by post, may be addressed to any address given as his in the list of governing board members, members or subscribers for the time being in use at the office or principal office of the charity.
(2) Where any such notice required to be given under subsection (1) is given by post, it shall be deemed to have been given by the time at which the letter containing it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.
(3) No notice required to be given under subsection (1) of any meeting or election need be given to any governing board member, member or subscriber, if in the list of governing board members, members or subscribers he has no address in Singapore.
[Charities Act 1985 Ed., s. 21]
41A.
—(1) The Commissioner may, for the purpose of discharging his functions under this Act, by order —
(a)
require any person to furnish the Commissioner with any information in his possession which relates to any charity or fund-raising appeal; and
(b)
require any person who has in his custody or under his control any document which relates to any charity or fund-raising appeal —
(i)
to furnish the Commissioner with a copy of or an extract from the document; or
(ii)
unless the document forms part of the records or other documents of a court or public authority, to transmit the document itself to the Commissioner for his inspection.
(2) The Commissioner shall be entitled without payment to keep any copy or extract furnished to him under subsection (1); and where a document transmitted to him for his inspection relates only to one or more charities and is not held by any person entitled as trustee or otherwise to the custody of the document, the Commissioner may keep it or may deliver it to the governing board members or to any other person who may be so entitled.
(3) The Commissioner or any officer authorised by him in that behalf shall at all times have full and free access to all buildings, places, books, documents and other papers for the purpose of discharging his functions under this Act, and may, without payment, inspect, copy or make extracts from any such books, documents or papers.
(4) The Commissioner may take possession of any books, documents or papers where in his opinion —
(a)
the inspection, copying thereof or extraction therefrom cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
(b)
the books, documents or papers may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(c)
the books, documents or papers may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder.
(5) The Commissioner may require any person to give orally or in writing, as may be required, all such information concerning any charity or fund-raising appeal as may be demanded of him by the Commissioner for the purposes of this Act.
(6) The rights conferred by this section shall, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, include the right to require the information to be made available in legible form for inspection or for a copy or extract to be made of or from it.
(7) Any person who fails to comply with any requirement specified in any order under subsection (1) or any requirement under subsection (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $50 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.
(8) Subject to section 41C(2), no person shall by virtue of this section be obliged to disclose any particulars as to which he is under any statutory obligation to observe secrecy.
(9) In this section, “fund-raising appeal” has the same meaning as in section 39(1).
41B.
—(1) Any person who knowingly or recklessly provides the Commissioner with information which is false or misleading in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence if the information is provided —
(a)
in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by or under this Act; or
(b)
otherwise than as mentioned in paragraph (a) but in circumstances in which the person providing the information intends, or could reasonably be expected to know, that it would be used by the Commissioner for the purpose of discharging his functions under this Act.
(2) Any person who wilfully alters, suppresses, conceals or destroys any document which he is or is liable to be required, by or under this Act, to produce to the Commissioner shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both.
(4) In this section, references to the Commissioner include references to any person conducting an inquiry under section 8.
41C.
—(1) Subject to subsection (2) and to any express restriction imposed by or under any other written law, a body or person to whom this section applies may disclose to the Commissioner any information received by that body or person under or for the purposes of any written law, where the disclosure is made by the body or person for the purpose of enabling or assisting the Commissioner to discharge any of his functions.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not have effect in relation to the Comptroller of Income Tax; but the Comptroller may disclose to the Commissioner the following information:
(a)
the name and address of any institution which has for any purpose been treated by the Comptroller as established for charitable purposes;
(b)
information as to the purposes of an institution and the governing instruments under which it is established or regulated, where the disclosure is made by the Comptroller in order to give or obtain assistance in determining whether the institution ought for any purpose to be treated as established for charitable purposes; and
(c)
information with respect to an institution which has for any purpose been treated as so established but which appears to the Comptroller —
(i)
to be, or to have been, carrying on activities which are not charitable; or
(ii)
to be, or to have been, applying any of its funds for purposes which are not charitable.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), the Commissioner may disclose to a body or person to whom this section applies any information received by him under or for the purposes of any written law, where the disclosure is made by the Commissioner —
(a)
for any purpose connected with the discharge of his functions; and
(b)
for the purpose of enabling or assisting that body or person to discharge any of its or his functions.
(4) Where any information disclosed to the Commissioner under subsection (1) or (2) is so disclosed subject to any express restriction on the disclosure of the information by the Commissioner, the Commissioner’s power of disclosure under subsection (3) shall, in relation to the information, be exercisable by him subject to any such restriction.
(5) This section shall apply to the following bodies and persons:
(a)
any Government department;
(b)
any statutory authority;
(c)
any police officer; and
(d)
any other body or person discharging functions of a public nature (including a body or person discharging regulatory functions in relation to any description of activities).
(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting any power of disclosure exercisable apart from this section.
42.
—(1) Any order made by the Commissioner under this Act may include such incidental or supplementary provisions as the Commissioner thinks expedient for carrying into effect the objects of the order.
(2) Where the Commissioner makes an order under this Act, then (without prejudice to the requirements of this Act where the order is subject to appeal) he may himself give such public notice as he thinks fit of the making or contents of the order, or may require it to be given by any person on whose application the order is made or by any charity affected by the order.
(3) The Commissioner may, at any time within 12 months after he has made an order under this Act, if he is satisfied that the order was made by mistake or on misrepresentation or otherwise than in conformity with this Act, with or without any application or reference to him, discharge the order in whole or in part, and subject or not to any savings or other transitional provisions.
(4) Except for the purposes of subsection (3) or of an appeal under this Act, an order made by the Commissioner under this Act shall be deemed to have been duly and formally made and not be called in question on the ground only of irregularity or informality, but (subject to any further order) have effect according to its tenor.
[Charities Act 1985 Ed., s. 22]
43.
—(1) This section shall apply to —
(a)
any order or direction made or given by the Commissioner under this Act; and
(b)
[Deleted by Act 34/2010 wef 01/03/2011]
(c)
any notice required to be served under any regulations made under this Act.
(2) A document to which this section applies may be served on or given to a person (other than a body corporate) —
(a)
by delivering it to that person;
(b)
by leaving it at his last known address in Singapore; or
(c)
by sending it by post to him at that address.
(3) A document to which this section applies may be served on or given to a body corporate by delivering it or sending it by post —
(a)
to the registered or principal office of the body corporate in Singapore; or
(b)
if it has no such office, to any place in Singapore where it carries on business or conducts its activities, as the case may be.
[UK Charities Act 1993, s. 91]
43A. Where any institution holds itself out to be a registered charity or an institution of a public character when it is not a registered charity or an institution of a public character, as the case may be, such institution and any person acting or purporting to act on behalf of or for the benefit of the institution, unless he proves that such holding out by the institution was made without his knowledge or consent, 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 3 years or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $100 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.
44.
—(1) Where any offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(2) In relation to a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, “director” means a member of the body corporate.
[UK Charities Act 1993, s. 95]
45. A person guilty of disobedience —
(a)
to an order of the Commissioner under section 24 or 25 requiring a transfer of property or payment to be called for or made; or
(b)
to an order of the Commissioner requiring a default under this Act to be made good,
may on the application of the Commissioner to the High Court be dealt with as for disobedience to an order of the High Court.
[Charities Act 1985 Ed., s. 23]
46.
—(1) Provisions shall be made by Rules of Court for regulating appeals to the High Court under this Act against orders or decisions of the Commissioner.
(2) On such an appeal —
(a)
the Attorney-General shall be entitled to appear and be heard; and
(b)
such other persons as the Rules allow or as the High Court may direct may appear and be heard.
[Charities Act 1985 Ed., s. 24]
46A. No action, suit or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioner, any Assistant Commissioner, any officer appointed or authorised by the Commissioner or any Sector Administrator appointed under section 40B, for anything done (including any statement made) or omitted to be done in good faith in the course of or in connection with —
(a)
the exercise or purported exercise of any power under this Act or any other written law;
(b)
the performance or purported performance of any function or the discharge or purported discharge of any duty under this Act or any other written law; or
(c)
the compliance or purported compliance with this Act or any other written law.
[10/2007]
[Casino Control Act 2006, s. 192]
47.
—(1) The Commissioner may, in his discretion, compound any offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder which is prescribed as an offence which may be compounded by collecting from a person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding one half of the amount of the maximum fine that is prescribed for the offence.
[10/2007]
(2) The Minister may prescribe the offences which may be compounded.
47A. Proceedings in respect of any offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder may, with the authorisation of the Public Prosecutor, be conducted by any public officer who is authorised to conduct such proceedings by the Commissioner.
[10/2007]
[IRAS Act, s. 26 (1)]
48.
—(1) The Minister may make such regulations as he considers necessary or expedient for giving full effect to the provisions and purposes of this Act and for the due administration thereof.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), any such regulations may —
(a)
prescribe the procedures and conditions for the registration of charities or any class of charities;
(b)
prescribe the fees for the inspection of the register of charities or of other material kept by the Commissioner and for other services provided by the Commissioner;
(c)
provide that any person who contravenes the regulations 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 3 years or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $100 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction; and
(d)
prescribe any other matter or thing required or permitted to be prescribed or necessary to be prescribed to give effect to this Act.
(4) All regulations made under this Act shall be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.
[Charities Act 1985 Ed., s. 25]
49.
—(1) Any document or order made or thing done under any provision of the repealed Charities Act (Cap. 37, 1985 Ed.), and every such document, order or thing so far as it is subsisting or in force on 1st January 1995 shall continue and have effect as if it had been made or done under the corresponding provisions of this Act.
(2) On 1st January 1995, the Commissioner of Charities, Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner and other officers appointed under section 3 of the repealed Charities Act shall continue in office and shall be deemed to be appointed under section 3 of this Act.
(3) In any written law, any reference to the repealed Charities Act shall be read as a reference to this Act.