Bangkok, 2 July 2021 – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued regulations for defining suspicious circumstances related to commission of offense and the procedure for obtaining facts related to such circumstances under Section 89/25* of the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992) (SEA) to clarify how to comply with the said Section and to protect investors’ interest more effectively.
Pursuant to Section 89/25* of the SEA, the auditor who
perform an audit in accordance with the auditing standards has the duty to
report to the Audit Committee of the securities company** or the Audit
Committee of the listed company if there is any suspicious circumstance that
indicates that a director, manager or the person responsible for the operation
of the juristic person may have committed an offense under Section 89/25*, for
example, taking the assets of the juristic person with dishonest intent,
obtaining unlawful gains which damages the juristic person, or altering,
shortening or falsifying documents.
SEC has therefore issued regulations
specifying suspicious circumstances and the procedure for obtaining facts
relating to such circumstances to be in accordance with the Professional
Accounting Standards, the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants and Provisions of the Law on
Professional Accountants such as the Thai Standards on Auditing (TSA)
concerning the Auditor’s Responsibility to Consider Fraud in an Audit of
Financial Statements as well as Consideration of Laws and Regulations in an
Audit of Financial Statements. The regulations will become effective from 1
July 2021.
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*
Pursuant to SECTION 89/25, in auditing a securities company or a company in
accordance with the auditing standards, either as the appointed auditor of such juristic person or as a person allowed to conduct an audit work of such
juristic person, if the auditor discovers any suspicious circumstance that a director, manager or any person responsible for the operation of such
juristic person commits an offence under Paragraph 2 of Section 281/2, Section 305, Section 306, Section 308, Section 309, Section 310, Section 311,
Section 312 or Section 313, the auditor shall inform the facts relating to such
circumstance to the Audit Committee of the securities company or the company in
order to continue the inspection without delay. The Audit Committee shall
report the result of the preliminary inspection to the SEC Office and the
auditor within thirty days. In cases where the Audit Committee fails to
comply, the auditor shall report the matter to the SEC
Office. The suspicious circumstances that must be reported
and the procedure for obtaining facts relating to such
circumstances shall be in accordance with the
Notification of the Capital Market Supervisory Board.
**
Securities company means any company, or financial institution licensed to
undertake securities business under the Securities and Exchange Act B.E. 2535 (1992) (SEA).