CORPORATE SECRETARY

Roles and Responsibilities of Company Secretary in Singapore

The role of a Corporate or Company Secretary is to ensure the company’s compliance with the local law. A company secretary is responsible for drafting, maintaining and organising multiple essential documents.

These common yet crucial tasks are part of the company secretary’s job scope, which include:

Board & General Meetings
1. Organise and prepare for board & general meetings
2. Facilitate the company’s formal decision-making process.
3. Assist the chairman of the meeting in the conduct of the meeting
4. Maintaining statutory registers and records
5. Update and report any changes to company structure, directors, and company secretary to multiple registers.
6. Arrange for Annual General Meetings in compliance with the Companies Act and the company’s constitution
Statutory returns
Updating ACRA on changes and filing of Annual Return.
Company constitution
Ensure that the company complies with its constitution
Duties related to directors
1. Act as an advisor to the directors and provide practical support needed.
2. Ensure the company’s directors are aware of the deadlines (annual returns) and their statutory duties.
3. Share timely information with all directors for better decision-making.
Duties related to shareholders
1. Supervise share allotments, issues and transfers.
2. Communicating with shareholders.
Duties related to non-executive company directors
Channel of communication and information for non-executive company directors

Inexperienced company secretaries will not be able to keep the company, directors, shareholders and auditors duly informed of the statutory requirements and deadlines in a timely manner.

5 Basic Skills A Qualified Company Secretary Should Have

Multitasking
A company secretary has many important responsibilities and often has a number of tasks on their plate at any one time. Hence, it is important that the company secretary is equipped with good planning and multitasking skills to take care of all these tasks and ensure compliance with statutory rules and regulations and maintain good corporate governance.
Attention to detail and deadlines
One of the important roles of a company secretary is to handle statutory documents and ensure compliance with statutory rules and regulations. It is crucial that the company secretary ensures the work and documents are done correctly without any mistakes and the documents are filed with the relevant authorities within the stipulated deadline.
Effective communication skills
It is important for a company secretary to have good negotiation skills, emotional intelligence and diplomacy to build effective working relationships with all board members.
Sound judgement
The ability to access and make good judgement allows the company secretary to make the best decision during a crisis or conflict.
Legal knowledge
A company secretary is required to possess basic legal knowledge and be familiar with the statutory responsibilities of company directors and shareholders. This ensures the company is in compliance with all statutory rules and regulations.