Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Prudential Refinements and Other Measures) Act 2010 (82 of 2010)

Schedule 4   Amendment of other Acts

Part 1   Amendments

Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997

29   At the end of Part 6

Add:

69 Auditor must notify the Regulator of attempts to unduly influence etc. the auditor etc.

(1) If an auditor of an RSA provider for the purposes of this Act is aware of circumstances that amount to:

(a) an attempt, in relation to an audit of the RSA provider, by any person to unduly influence, coerce, manipulate or mislead the auditor or a member of the audit team conducting the audit; or

(b) an attempt by any person to otherwise interfere with the proper conduct of the audit;

the auditor must notify the Regulator in writing of those circumstances as soon as practicable, and in any case within 28 days, after the auditor becomes aware of those circumstances.

(2) An auditor commits an offence if the auditor contravenes subsection (1).

Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months or 50 penalty units, or both.

70 Giving false or misleading information to auditor

Offence - person knows the information is false or misleading etc.

(1) A person commits an offence if:

(a) the person is an employee or officer of an RSA provider; and

(b) the person gives information, or allows information to be given, to an auditor of the RSA provider; and

(c) the information relates to the affairs of the RSA provider; and

(d) the person knows that the information:

(i) is false or misleading in a material particular; or

(ii) is missing something that makes the information misleading in a material respect.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 5 years or 200 penalty units, or both.

Offence - person fails to ensure the information is not false or misleading etc.

(2) A person commits an offence if:

(a) the person is an employee or officer of an RSA provider; and

(b) the person gives information, or allows information to be given, to an auditor of the RSA provider; and

(c) the information relates to the affairs of the RSA provider; and

(d) the information:

(i) is false or misleading in a material particular; or

(ii) is missing something that makes the information misleading in a material respect; and

(e) the person did not take reasonable steps to ensure that the information:

(i) was not false or misleading in a material particular; or

(ii) was not missing something that makes the information misleading in a material respect.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 2 years or 100 penalty units, or both.

Determining whether information is false or misleading

(3) If information is given to the auditor in response to a question asked by the auditor, the information and the question must be considered together in determining whether the information is false or misleading.