A number of well-known multinationals with operations in the Republic are understood to be on a list of companies being pressed by the Companies Registration Office (CRO) to supply better financial data. Colm Keena reports.
The CRO has contacted the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) in relation to the matter and the two agencies have been discussing how to achieve better compliance from the companies concerned.
The CRO has drawn up a list of external registered companies with branches here who it believes are not complying with their filing or other obligations. While many of the firms involved would not be generally known, some are understood to be household names.
The names on the list include companies registered in the UK, continental Europe and the Cayman Islands, but with branches registered here.
Among the options being looked at are possible criminal proceedings. The Director of Corporate Enforcement Mr Paul Appleby told the annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators recently that proceedings that might be taken by his office in the future include proceedings against external companies.
Previously unreported figures given during that address show that the workload of Mr Appleby's office has grown significantly.
In the year to October, the office made use of 10 search warrants, as against five during all of 2002. It received 13 High Court orders in the year to October allowing for the examination of a company or company director's bank records. Seven such orders were used during 2002.
There were six arrests during the year to October, compared with none in 2002, and in three instances people were detained in Garda stations for questioning.
The office secured a seizure order from the courts that allowed it seize two luxury cars that had been purchased with funds belonging to a company that went into liquidation. The cars were handed over to the liquidator who sold them and distributed the funds to creditors.
The ODCE has received 1,100 reports from auditors outlining suspected indictable offences in the year to October, compared with 400 received in 2002. Three-quarters of the cases related to filings to the CRO and 15 per cent were about directors' loans.
The ODCE is working on memorandums of understanding which will provide the structures for swapping information with other State agencies such as the Revenue and the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
In the year to October, the office received 575 reports from liquidators compared to 579 for all of 2002. In the 503 cases determined in the year to October, 36 per cent were refused relief from having to seek the restriction of directors in the courts. A number of the reports have led to the initiation of criminal inquiries.
Next week the ODCE is to issue a guidance document on the subject of directors' loans.
