Companies Act to be best practice: A-G

Parliament yesterday passed a motion by the Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to amend the Companies Act of 2015.

The Bill was passed after an extensive debate and concluded with 27 votes for the Bill, 23 against and one who did not vote. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the Act came into force on January 1, 2016, except for Section 713 which came into force on December 23, 2015.

The Bill sought to amend the Act to enable the Minister responsible for companies to amend Schedule one to four of the Act to be efficiently adjusted in line with changing market conditions.

While urging all members of parliament to vote for the Bill Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the substantive law was intact and was not being amended and that the amendment will get Fiji in line with international best practices.

“The rationale for the amendment is to enable the executive arm of government to be more responsive to market changes and thus be able to change the schedules accordingly instead of having to come back to parliament whenever an administrative or operational issue needs to be changed,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

He also highlighted other laws which has schedules that are under the ambit of the line minister namely the Food Safety Act, Employment Relations Act, Prevention of Bribery Act, Media Industry Development Act, and Accident Compensation Act.