S.L. 601.4 Art. 6Public undertakings required to provide information.

(1) Public undertakings shall ensure that information concerning the financial relations referred to in regulation 3 shall be kept at the disposal of the Government of Malta for five years from the end of the financial year in which public funds were made available to them. However, where the same funds are used during a later financial year, the five-year limit shall run from the end of that financial year.

(2) Public undertakings shall ensure that information concerning the financial and organisational structure referred to in regulation 5 shall be kept at the disposal of the Government of Malta for five years from the end of the financial year to which the information refers.

(3) Wherever the Government of Malta considers it necessary so to request, such public undertakings shall supply to the Ministry responsible for finance the information referred to in subregulations (1) and (2), together with any necessary background information, notably the objectives pursued: Provided that the financial information as regards public undertakings operating in the manufacturing sector shall be supplied by the public undertakings to the Ministry responsible for finance on an annual basis: Provided further that such information shall be provided by all public undertakings whose turnover for the most recent financial year was more than Euro 250 million.

(4) The information given in pursuance of this regulation shall be the following:

(a) the annual accounts and annual report in accordance with Council Directive 76/660/EEC. These annual accounts and annual report shall include the balance sheet and profit and loss account, explanatory notes, together with accounting policies, statements by directors, and segmental and activity reports. Moreover, notice of shareholders’ meetings and any other pertinent information shall be provided; and

(b) the following details, in so far as not disclosed in the annual accounts and annual report of the public undertaking, shall also be provided:

(i) the provision of any share capital or quasi-capital funds similar in nature to equity, specifying the terms of the relative provision (whether ordinary, preference, deferred, or convertible shares, and interest rates, the dividend or conversion rights attaching thereto);

(ii) non-refundable grants, or grants which are only refundable in certain circumstances;

(iii) the award to the undertaking of any loans, including overdrafts and advances on capital injections, with a specification of interest rates and the terms of the loan and its security, if any, given to the lender by the undertaking receiving the loan;

(iv) guarantees given to the undertaking by the Government of Malta in respect of loan finance (specifying terms and any charges paid by the undertaking for these guarantees);

(v) dividends paid out and profits retained;

(vi) any other form of State intervention, in particular, the forgoing of sums due to the Government of Malta by a public undertaking, including the repayment of loans, inter alia grants, payment of corporate or social taxes or any similar charges.