Under tough new powers in the Company Law Enforcement Bill, published today, persons who supply false information in purported compliance of the Companies Acts can be jailed for up to seven years.
As well as increasing the penalties for certain offences the new bill contains powers aimed at helping inspectors and authorised officers carry out their inquiries. Many of these changes are being proposed as a result of the experience gained by authorised officers and inspectors in recent years.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday expressed the hope that the creation of the new agency, the office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, "will be the advent of a new dawn bringing in a new era of greater compliance with and respect for the requirements of company law."
If the bill is enacted then it is the director who will decide when authorised officers should be appointed or applications for the appointment of High Court inspectors made. Members of the director's staff will be able to act in such roles.
Ms Harney has been very active in the appointment of such officers in recent years, using the powers contained in the Companies Acts. However she has said she came under huge pressure at times not to persist with such investigations. The new law is aimed at taking decisions on such matters out of the political arena.
Accountants, tax advisers and book-keepers who provided services to companies being investigated by inspectors can be quizzed more easily under the terms of the bill. The bill also improves the law in relation to giving inspectors the right to seek the court's assistance with recalcitrant companies or company officers.
A new offence is to be created in relation to furnishing false or misleading answers to authorised officers. It will also be an offence to destroy books and documents the production of which has been demanded, even if the six-year retention period which governs such documents has been exceeded.
Another new section creates an offence "where a person who knows or suspects that the Director of Corporate Enforcement is investigating or may investigate an offence under the Companies Acts, destroys or conceals documentary evidence that may relate to that offence," according to the memorandum which accompanies the bill.
The bill would create a presumption that a person who destroys or conceals documentary evidence is aware of the fact that the evidence may have been relevant to an investigation of the director - unless a court or jury is satisfied that there is reasonable doubt as to the person's knowledge in this regard.
Another provision will allow authorised officers to require persons to operate any computer on a premises searched under warrant, for the purposes of retrieving information.
Ms Harney's tenure as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has seen inquiries into, among others, Bula Resources, Celtic Helicopters, Ansbacher Cayman, Dunnes Stores, National Irish Bank and Guinness & Mahon bank.
