Companies Act (Cap. 386), article 176

176. (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 sh eet which is laid before the COMP ANIES [CAP. 386. 117 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 relevan t competent authority as part of the company’s reporting obligati ons in conformity with the European Single Electronic Format reporting standard, in conformity with the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/815 of 17 December 2018 s upplementing Directive 2004/ 109/EC of the European Parliamen t and of the Council with regar d 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 b y similar electronic means. (4) If annual accounts are appr oved which do not comply with the provisions of this Act, ever y director of the company who i s party to their approval and who knows that they do not comply o r is negligent as to whether they comply shall be liable to a penalt y. For this purpose every director of the company at the time the acco unts are approved shall be taken to be a party to their approval unl ess 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. Contents of the directors’ report. Amended by: XXXI. 2015.12; XVIII.2025.22.