Published on: Saturday, November 26, 2005 |
Kuching: The Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) will launch an aggressive enforcement drive nation-wide from next year to ensure companies and businesses fully comply with corporate governance, its chief executive officer (CEO) Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil said Friday.
He said such a deterrent approach was necessary given that the country's positive economic growth and political stability had contributed tremendously to the increased number of new companies and businesses registered with the SSM nation-wide.
"We expect an upward trend every year in the total number of companies and businesses registered with SSM and we hope the compliance rate, from 44 percent in 2003 to 64 percent last year, will continue to improve when our enforcement activities are intensified," he told a media conference after opening the SSM's Inaugural Dialogue For East Malaysia Region here.
Abdul Karim, who was appointed the new CEO effective Nov 1 this year, said the dialogue served as a platform between SSM, as a regulator and provider of corporate information, and stakeholders to share their experiences and get inputs for a better understanding of the law.
Up to September this year, he said a total of 709,775 companies were registered with SSM, compared to 680,871 last year and 3,021,344 businesses so far compared to 2,871,611 last year throughout the country.
In Sarawak, a total of 40,579 companies, including 26 foreign ones had registered with SSM up to September this year compared to 39,287 last year, which were mostly trading and business entities, he said.
He said a total of 125,869 inspections, including 165 in Sarawak, were conducted nation-wide up to September this year on companies and business premises.
As a result of the inspections, 3917 cases were prosecuted in court, including 3091 under the Companies Act 1965 and 826 under the Registration of Business Act 1965, he said.
So far 369 cases were prosecuted in Sarawak, including 39 persons, for non-compliance of corporate governance.
Depending on the nature of the offences, which could carry a maximum penalty not exceeding RM1 million, he said 90 percent of the businesses and companies opted to settle the case by paying the compounds.
He said there was a nine percent increase in the total compound value in monetary terms for incidences of non-compliance to RM7,123,800 last year from RM6,542,800 in 2003.- Bernama
