Bill: Vote Financial Reporting Act

[Dogeington]

A
BILL
To

Regulate the financial reporting of Public Companies​

The people of the Commonwealth of Redmont, through their elected Representatives in the Congress and the force of law ordained to that Congress by the people through the constitution, do hereby enact the following provisions into law:

1 - Short Title and Enactment

(1) This Act may be cited as the ‘Financial Reporting Act’.
(2) This Act shall be enacted immediately upon its signage.
(3) This Act has been authored by .MgChamp2339 and Senator xSyncx.
(4) This Act has been sponsored by Representative Dogeington.
(5) This Act has been co-sponsored by Senator xSyncx.

2 - Reasons
(1) There are no provisions for accounting or shareholder reporting standards in Redmont.
(2) There have been recent cases of poor accounting going unnoticed by shareholders, ultimately eliminating millions in value.

3 - Amendment to the Commercial Standards Act Section 18
The following shall be added to Section 18 of the Commercial Standards Act.
(12) Public Company: A company whose securities are listed on any registered Stock Exchange in the Commonwealth of Redmont.

4 - Amendment to the Commercial Standards Act
Add the following sections
20 - Public Company Reporting
(1) All Public Companies shall be required to file the following financial statements monthly.
(a) Balance Sheet
(b) Income Statement
(2) The statements must be publicly available through the stock exchange the public company is listed on, in an accessible form that can be downloaded.
(3) Public companies must have their audit status disclosed alongside their statements.
(a) The two statuses are Audited and Unaudited
(i) Audited: The company has received a statutory audit in the previous 3 months. The date of the most recent audit, and who conducted the audit must also be disclosed.
(ii) Unaudited: The company has not received a statutory audit in the previous 3 months.


21 - Statutory Audits
(1) A statutory audit shall give a fair and impartial assessment of a Public Company’s financial health, validate their reported statements, and ensure they comply with financial law.
(i) The audit must verify the existence and fair valuation of each item recorded on the balance sheet.
(ii) The audit must confirm the existence and legitimacy of the cash flows reported on each line of the income statement.
(2) Any audit that does not meet the above specification cannot be labelled an audit by a public company or a registered stock exchange.

5 - Amend The Criminal Code Act
Add the following

22 - Falsification of an Audit Report
Offence Type: Indictable
Penalty: Up to 200 Penalty Units; Suspension of ability to issue audit reports.
A person commits an offence if the person:
(a) Knowingly issues an audit report that presents a false or misleading impression of a company’s financial condition or its compliance with applicable financial law.
Relevant Law: <link to this law>

 

[Smami]

Aye, this holds corporations accountable, and gives the government the ability to ensure that business is being done fairly and above-board.