Cap. 386 Art. 176Approval and signing of annual accounts.

(1) A company’s annual accounts shall be approved by the board of directors and the balance sheet shall be dated and signed on behalf of the board by two directors of the company.

(2) Every copy of the balance sheet which is laid before the company in general meeting, or which is otherwise circulated, published or issued, shall state the name of the directors who signed the balance sheet on behalf of the board.

(3) The copy of the company’s balance sheet which is delivered to the Registrar shall be signed on behalf of the board by the same directors who signed the balance sheet pursuant to sub-article (1):

Provided that without prejudice to this sub-article, when a copy of the company’s balance sheet is submitted to the relevant competent authority as part of the company’s reporting obligations in conformity with the European Single Electronic Format reporting standard, in conformity with the Commission Delegated Regulation

(EU) 2019/815 of 17 December 2018 supplementing Directive 2004/ 109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards on the specification of a single electronic reporting format, such copy shall be transmitted to the Registrar by means of an application programming interface or by similar electronic means.

(4) If annual accounts are approved which do not comply with the provisions of this Act, every director of the company who is party to their approval and who knows that they do not comply or is negligent as to whether they comply shall be liable to a penalty. For this purpose every director of the company at the time the accounts are approved shall be taken to be a party to their approval unless he proves that he took all reasonable steps to prevent their being approved.

(5) If a copy of the annual accounts -

(a) is laid before the company, or otherwise circulated, published or issued, without having been signed as required by this article or without the required statement of the signatory’s name being included; or

(b) is delivered to the Registrar without being signed as required by this article, every officer of the company who is in default shall be liable to a penalty.