Just like in most countries, if you own a professional company in Singapore, you need to follow certain rules and regulations in compliance with the Singapore Companies Act. Corporate secretarial services include company formation, registration, international structuring, appointment of the Company Secretary, Annual general meetings, annual filings with ACRA, and other important tasks.
Appointing the company secretary is one of the most important corporate secretarial services that is a mandatory role for any private limited company registered under ACRA. You cannot incorporate your company in Singapore if you do not have an appointed company secretary. In some cases, it may not be possible for a company to appoint a company secretary e.g. in the case where there is only one director; he cannot be both the director and the company secretary.
So what exactly are the roles and responsibilities of a Company Secretary? Here we will discuss some of the key responsibilities of a company secretary in Singapore.
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Core Company Duties
A Company Secretary is the primary person responsible for administering all the company’s functions and reporting mandated by the Law. Basically, he assists the company’s directors in ensuring that the company meets all its regulatory obligations. His core duties also include protection of the company’s business interest in all situations and practice of good corporate governance.
Planning And Preparing For Meetings
Another core responsibility of the company secretary is to plan and prepare for meetings to facilitate the company’s formal decision making process. The first step in this regard is to schedule a meeting according to the company’s directors’ availability. In some cases, he may even oversee the logistics, venues, and lodging of the directors for the meetings. He has to schedule meetings at regular intervals so all the directors and board members can be kept up-to-date with the business operations.
He is also responsible for the delivery, security, and retention of the materials and presentations of meetings. He has to ensure that the meeting materials are compliant with corporate, legal, and regulatory laws. The Company Secretary is the main point of contact for all communications among the members of the meeting.
Creating Company’s Agenda
Apart from meeting schedules, he is also responsible to create a basic comprehensive agenda for the complete year that allows the business to operate in compliance with the state, federal, and listing requirements. He also revises and updates the agenda based on changing business needs after comprehensive communication with the directors, board members, and stakeholders.
Filing Company’s Annual Accounts
Another important role of the Company Secretary is to file the company’s annual accounts on time and to ensure that all statutory compliance with ACRA is met. This can include even trivial tasks such as change of registered office address or if any registered auditor was changed or removed. He also maintains necessary registers and makes amends to the Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA) to ensure that all the board members and directors comply with the updated ones.
Duties With The Company Directors
A Company Secretary also has some roles depending on whether he is answering to the Directors of the company. His duties include serving as advisor to the Directors and sharing all relevant information with them in a timely manner so that they are well prepared before a scheduled board meeting. He also acts as a liaison between the Directors and the shareholders and provides them with all administrative support during their interactions.
Duties With Shareholders
As part of his duties with the shareholders, a Company Secretary regularly communicates with them to ensure that their reservations are heard and passed on to the relevant authorities and the Directors. He works in safeguarding the interests of the shareholders and provides them with all the relevant financial statements so they can also prepare themselves in having their voices heard during the company’s meetings.
These are some of the roles and responsibilities that a Company Secretary has in an incorporated company in Singapore. If you take the services of Morrison Management, they will appoint a Company Secretary for your company and save you the hassle and ensure that all the required roles and responsibilities are carried out in a professional and law-complaint way.
If you are unable to appoint a company secretary for your organization in Singapore, you can hire the services of professional corporate secretarial company such as Morrison Management that specialise in providing accounting and tax advisory, management consultancy, and many other corporate services.
