Cap. 386 Art. 154Right to information.

(1) The auditors of a company shall have a right of access at all times to the company’s accounting records, accounts and vouchers, and shall be entitled to require from the company’s officers such information and explanations as they think necessary for the performance of their duties as auditors.

(2) An officer of a company who knowingly or recklessly makes to the company’s auditors a statement, whether written or oral, which:

(a) conveys or purports to convey any information or explanations which the auditors require, or are entitled to require, as auditors of the company; and

(b) is misleading, false or deceptive in a material particular, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine (multa) of not more than four thousand and six hundred and fifty-eight euro (€4,658) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(3) A subsidiary undertaking which is registered in Malta, and the auditors of such an undertaking, shall give to the auditors of any parent company of the subsidiary undertaking such information and explanations as they may reasonably require for the purposes of their duties as auditors of that company. If a subsidiary undertaking fails to comply with the provisions of this sub-article, every officer thereof who is in default shall be liable to a penalty; and if an auditor fails without reasonable cause to comply with this sub-article he shall be liable to a penalty.

(4) A parent company having a subsidiary undertaking which is not registered in Malta shall, if required by its auditors to do so, take all such steps as are reasonably open to it to obtain from the subsidiary undertaking such information and explanations as they may reasonably require for the purposes of their duties as auditors of that company. If a parent company fails to comply with the provisions of this sub-article, every officer of the company who is in default shall be liable to a penalty.