On 24/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 24/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 24/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 15/06/1998.
PART III
INCOME AND RECEIPTS
12.
—(1) Payment to a Town Council may be made, in order of preference, through the following means:
(a)
non-counter and cashless;
(b)
non-counter but in cash;
(c)
counter but cashless; or
(d)
counter with receipting machine.
(2) Cashless payments should be encouraged and may be made by electronic fund transfers, cheques, money orders, postal orders or cashier’s orders.
(3) The secretary should, wherever possible, encourage payments by means of electronic fund transfers over other forms of cashless payment.
(4) Where a fee or charge is payable to the collection agent for electronic fund transfer services, the prior approval of the chairman or an officer authorised by the chairman shall be obtained.
(5) Apart from cheques, money orders, postal orders or cashier’s orders, electronic transfer services provided by banks such as the following should be used to collect payments to a Town Council:
(a)
Giro;
(b)
telephone banking;
(c)
inter-bank Giro;
(d)
television banking; section 33A (1)
(e)
automated teller machine.
(6) Where there is no necessity to provide counter service to the public at the point of collection and cash payment is unavoidable, automated collection machines such as note-recognition machines may be used to accept cash.
(7) Where there is a need to provide counter service to the public, payments should, wherever possible, be made through electronic fund transfer at point-of-sale terminals.
(8) Where none of the methods mentioned in this rule can be used, the counter used to collect payments should be mechanised or computerised to expedite the collection as well as to improve service to the public.
(9) For the purposes of paragraph (8), receipting machines, intelligent financial terminals or computerised terminals may be used.
(10) Machines to be purchased should, where possible, be of the type which are able to accept electronic fund transfer at point-of-sale transactions.
13.
—(1) Officers entrusted with the receipt, custody, disbursements or charge of a Town Council’s moneys or property may be required to provide security for the faithful discharge of their duty.
(2) Where the security referred to in paragraph (1) is by means of fidelity insurance, the Town Council shall pay the necessary premiums.
(3) In every case of default, the liability of the sureties must be enforced.
14. Officers authorised by a Town Council to receive and collect moneys on behalf of the Town Council are responsible for the safe keeping and proper disposal of the moneys and the safe custody and proper use of all receipts, licences and other documents for which payments are received.
15.
—(1) Remittances received by hand or through the post shall be promptly registered in the proper remittance register and shall reach the receiving cashier not later than 4.30 p.m. on weekdays or 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays who shall issue promptly receipts in acknowledgment of the cash remittances.
(2) No officer who is not authorised to receive cash shall accept moneys presented by the public for payment to a Town Council.
(3) Where cash payments to a Town Council are tendered after 4.30 p.m. on weekdays or 12.30 p.m. on Saturdays, or if the remittances are by hand or through the post, they shall immediately be sent to the cashier before the end of the same working day, if possible, and in any case not later than the morning of the next working day.
(4) If the overnight collections are likely to exceed $5,000 in cash, night safe facilities at the nearest bank should be used.
16. A machine printed receipt or one duly signed by the authorised receiving officer, dated with the day of issue, must be issued forthwith for all cash received, to the payer or to his representative.
17.
—(1) No alteration of a material nature or of the amount or date may be made to a receipt or, in the case of machine-issued receipts, subsequent to machine receipting and issue.
(2) Alterations made shall be in the following manner:
Manuscript Receipt | Machine-Issued Receipt |
(a) To be made on the original, duplicate and triplicate of the receipt | To be made on the original and duplicate of the receipt. |
(b) To be initialled by the cashier or collector concerned, and to be checked by the supervisor of the cashier or collector and initialled by him on the duplicate and triplicate | To be initialled by the counter cashier and his supervisor. |
(3) Any alteration to a receipt must not be made by erasure and must comply with the requirements of rule 90.
(4) If for any reason a receipt form is spoilt and cannot be issued, it must not be destroyed but must be —
(a)
cancelled;
(b)
initialled by the officer empowered to issue the receipt;
(c)
attached to the relative counterfoil; and
(d)
produced for inspection when required.
18.
—(1) In the collection of revenue, when it is necessary to entrust receipt books to junior officers, they should be strictly forbidden from keeping these receipt books in their private premises overnight.
(2) All receipt and licence books actually in use shall be locked up at the close of each day by the officers in charge of them.
19.
—(1) The stock of unissued manuscript receipt books and serially numbered paper receipts shall be kept by the secretary or any person appointed by him and all such stocks shall be recorded in a stock register and shall be locked up.
(2) The stock of parking coupons and similar documents of value shall be kept by the secretary or any person appointed by him and all such stocks shall be recorded in a stock register and shall be locked up.
20.
—(1) Where any book is found defective, a notice to that effect shall immediately be recorded by the officer in charge of the register.
(2) The book may thereafter, if the defect is not serious in the opinion of the secretary or any person appointed by him for the respective documents mentioned in rule 19, be used subject to such further conditions as may be noted in the register.
21.
—(1) All collections received by authorised officers must be deposited as soon as possible in the safe or vault provided for the purpose, or paid into a bank account of the Town Council; and negligence in this respect will place the entire responsibility for any loss upon the officer concerned.
(2) Whenever any cash collection or moneys for cash sums exceeding $50,000 are physically conveyed by a Town Council’s cashier, there shall be armed escort accompanying the cashier conveying the moneys.
(3) For sums between $5,000 and $50,000, use of armed escorts shall be discretionary except that, if no armed escorts are employed, a second officer must accompany the cashier.
22. Moneys to be banked shall be lodged not later than the business day following the day of receiving the moneys.
23.
—(1) All moneys received during each day shall be placed at closing time in the money delivery box, which shall be locked as prescribed and kept in the safe or strong room until delivered into the hands of one of the Town Council’s bankers or their representatives on the following business day.
(2) Only articles authorised by the chairman may be kept in the safe.
(3) The keys of the safe and money delivery box shall be kept by separate officers authorised by the chairman.
25.
—(1) The spare keys to strong rooms and safes shall be sealed in a packet and deposited with one of the bankers of the Town Council .
(2) Whenever considered necessary, the sealed packets shall be withdrawn after production of the deposit receipt, the spare keys put into use and the original keys deposited in the manner provided by this rule.
(3) Officers taking over charge of a strong room or safe are to satisfy themselves that the spare keys are deposited in the manner provided by this rule.
(4) Covering letters to bankers for deposit or withdrawal of spare keys shall be signed by any 2 of the following officers, namely, the secretary, the chairman and the vice-chairman.
(5) The key to the deposit box with the bankers shall be kept by the secretary or an officer authorised by the chairman, and the duplicate key shall be kept by the chairman.
26.
—(1) In the event of loss of the key to a strong room or safe, the fact shall immediately be reported to the secretary, who shall arrange for the contents in the strong room or safe to be checked and for their safe custody until the lock is changed.
(2) An officer responsible for the loss of a key of a strong room or safe may be called upon to pay for the cost of new lock and keys, including the cost of fitting the lock.
27. Heads of Departments shall ensure that all goods sold or services performed are correctly billed and all billings are forwarded to the Finance Department promptly after they have been checked and certified.
28. Fees or charges which are levied or imposed by a Town Council shall be of the following categories:
Category | Approved by |
(a) those that apply to the Board’s tenants or lessees in general | Town Council |
(b) those that apply only to a selected group of people: | |
(i) any fee or charge of monthly or longer term nature | Town Council |
(ii) any single item where the amount exceeds $3,000 | Town Council |
(iii) any single item where the amount does not exceed $3,000 | Chairman |
(iv) any single item where the amount does not exceed $1,000 | Officer or Committee authorised by the chairman. |
29. The authority to approve the selling prices of fixed assets shall be as follows:
(a) not exceeding $1,000 per item | Officer or Committee authorised by the chairman |
(b) not exceeding $3,000 per item | Chairman |
(c) exceeding $3,000 per item | Town Council. |