SINGAPORE LEGISLATION
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Citation | (1994) 6 SAcLJ 468 |
| Author | CHARLES LIM AENG CHENG |
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
DIGEST OF ACTS PASSED BETWEEN MARCH 1994 AND OCTOBER 1994 IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
(correct as at 31st October 1994)
Long Title: An Act to amend the Central Provident Fund Act (Chapter 36 of the 1994 Revised Edition).
Passed by Parliament on: 25th July 1994.
Assented to by President on: 12th August 1994.
Publication date: 19th August 1994.
Commencement date: 1st July 1994 (for sections 3 and 11 only).
Summary: This Act amends the Central Provident Fund Act. The following are some of the more significant provisions of the Act.
Section 3 amends section 13(1) of the principal Act to provide that medisave may be withdrawn in accordance with regulations made under the new section 77 (1) (ja) to pay medical insurance premiums. Section 11 amends section 77 (1) to empower the Minister to make regulations to provide for withdrawal of moneys from the medisave accounts to pay premiums of approved medical insurance schemes.
Section 4 amends section 15 to allow —
(a) a member of the Fund to top-up his minimum sum;
(b) married couples who are members of the Fund to set aside only one and a half times the minimum sum if they execute a prescribed memorandum nominating irrevocably one party to receive the minimum sum on the death of the other party;
(c) the minimum sum to be deposited with an approved bank or in a retirement account with the Board or used to purchase an approved annuity from insurers;
(d) the minimum sum to be withdrawn at the age of 60 years or such other age as the Minister may prescribe; and
(e) a member of the Fund to withdraw the minimum sum after the age of 55 years but before the age of 60 years or such other age as the Minister may prescribe if the member is physically or mentally incapacitated from ever continuing in any employment, of unsound mind, suffering from a terminal illness or receiving a pension, annuity or other benefit.
Section 5 re-enacts section 18 to allow the transfer of moneys of a member to his parent’s or spouse’s retirement account. Section 6 re-enacts section 19 to allow moneys which had been transferred to the retirement account
of the parent or spouse of a member to be transferred back to the account of the member on the death of the parent or spouse.
Sections 7 and 8 amend sections 30(5) and 35 to extend the coverage of the Home Protection Insurance Scheme to members of the Fund who are below 60 years of age or such other age as the Minister may prescribe. Section 9 amends section 42 to exclude members who are below the age of 16 years from the Dependants’ Protection Insurance Scheme and to extend the coverage of the Scheme to members who are below 60 years of age or such other age as the Minister may prescribe. Section 10 amends section 50 to exclude the MediShield Scheme from the Insurance Act.
Comments: The Act allows the use of CPF Funds for payment of premiums for medical and health insurance in addition to Medishield. Changes have also been made to the minimum sum scheme for members reaching 55 years old.
Long Title: An Act to make provision for the registration of charities, the administration of charities and their affairs, the regulation of fund-raising activities carried on in connection with charities and other institutions and the conduct of public charitable collections and for purposes connected therewith, and to repeal the Charities Act (Chapter 37 of the 1985 Revised Edition).
Passed by Parliament on: 31st October 1994
Assented to by President on: Not assented to.
Publication date: Not published.
Commencement date: Not in force.
Summary: This Act re-enacts with amendments the Charities Act (the Act) for the purposes of strengthening the role of the Commissioner of Charities and making fresh provisions to improve the system of supervision of charities and to regulate fund-raising activities carried on in connection with charities and other institutions and the conduct of public charitable collections. The following are some of the more significant provisions of the Act.
Section 5 re-enacts section 5 of the Act to allow for computerisation of the register of charities. Section 6 re-enacts section 6 of the Act dealing with the effect of, and claims and objections to, registration of charities.
Section 7 inserts a new section 7 to empower the Commissioner to give a direction requiring the name of a charity to be changed where the name is the same (or too like) the name of another charity, is misleading or offensive, or gives the impression that the charity is connected with the Government when it is not so connected. Sections 8 and 9 broaden the scope of the Commissioner’s existing powers in sections 7 and 8 of the Act
to institute inquiries and to obtain information and documents regarding the activities of charities. Sections 10 and 11 re-enact sections 9 and 10 of the Act. Section 10 makes it an offence to supply false or misleading information to the Commissioner or to alter, suppress or destroy any document. Section 11 makes provision for the disclosure of information between the Commissioner and other bodies.
New Part IV of the Act (sections 12 to 18) makes fresh provisions relating to the keeping and auditing of charity accounts and to small charities. Under sections 12 and 13, the charity trustees are required to keep accounting records and to prepare annual statements of accounts and to preserve them for at least 7 years. Section 14 requires the accounts of a charity whose gross income or total expenditure in a financial year exceeds $250,000 to be audited by an approved company auditor. Section 15 contains supplementary provisions relating to audits. Under section 16, charity trustees will be required to prepare in respect of each financial year annual reports together with the statement of accounts and the report of the auditor and transmit them to the Commissioner within 6 months of the end of the year in question. Section 17 requires charities to make their annual reports and other documents available for public inspection. Section 18 makes it an offence to be, without reasonable excuse, persistently in default in relation to certain requirements of Part IV.
New Part V of the Act (sections 19 and 20) empowers the trustees of certain small charities, with the concurrence of the Commissioner —
(a) to transfer their property to other similar charities or to modify their trusts, where the existing purposes of the charity are no longer conducive to an efficient use of resources; and
(b) to free themselves from any restrictions on expenditure of capital in the endowment of the charity where they consider that the property of the charity is too small for any useful purpose to be served by the expenditure of income alone.
Section 21 re-enacts section 11 of the Act relating to the occasions for applying property cy-pres. Section 22 amends section 12 of the Act to simplify the process by which charity property may be applied cy-pres. Forms of inquiries and advertisements will be prescribed to enable donors to be traced before applying the property cy-pres. Also, where property is set aside to meet claims by untraced donors, the period within which such claims may be made is reduced from 12 to 6 months, and provision is made for proportional settlement of claims. Sections 23 and 24 re-enact sections 13 and 14 of the Act relating to the entrusting of charity property to the Public Trustee and the concurrent jurisdiction of the Commissioner with the High Court for certain purposes.
Section 25 enhances the powers of the Commissioner under section 15 of the Act to act for the protection of a charity administration where, after
the institution of an inquiry, he is satisfied that there has been misconduct or mismanagement and that it is necessary or desirable to protect charity property or secure its proper application. The additional powers conferred on the Commissioner include restraining debtors of charities from parting with money owed to the charity, appointing additional trustees and a receiver and manager where the administration has broken down. Section 26 introduces a new provision containing supplementary provisions relating to a receiver and manager appointed by the Commissioner under section 25. Sections 27 and 28 disqualify certain persons from acting as charity trustees and to make it an offence, subject to exceptions, to act as a charity trustee while disqualified.
New Part VII of the Act (sections 33 to 38) introduces fresh provisions to deal with fund-raising on behalf of charities by professional fund-raisers and commercial participators. Section 33 defines certain terms used in the Part. Section 34 makes it unlawful for professional fund-raisers and commercial participators to raise funds or represent that charitable contributions are to be given to or applied for the benefit of a charitable institution unless they do so in accordance with an agreement with the institution satisfying the prescribed requirements. Contravention is restrained by way of injunction. Agreements which do not satisfy the prescribed requirements are unenforceable. Section 35 requires professional fund-raisers and commercial participators to give details of the institutions for whom they are soliciting money or other property, or are purporting to benefit and the proportions in which they are to benefit and their own remuneration. Section 36 enables a donor to serve-a written notice entitling him to have payment exceeding the prescribed sum refunded to him and certain agreements to pay such sum cancelled. A charity will be able, under section 37, to obtain an injunction to prevent unauthorised or objectionable fund-raising on behalf of the charity. Section 38 makes it an offence falsely to represent that the charity for which money or other property is being solicited is a...
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