32Director may require accounts to be audited

32 Director may require accounts to be audited

S. 32(1) amended by No. 70/2001 s. 24(1)(a).

(1) The Director may direct a person who is conducting, or has conducted, a fundraising appeal to submit to the Director, within the time specified by the Director, an auditor's report on the accounts and records kept in relation to the appeal.

(2) A person must comply with such a direction.

(3) The report must be prepared by—

S. 32(3)(a) substituted by No. 44/2001 s. 3(Sch. item 51).

(a) a registered company auditor within the meaning of the Corporations Act; or

S. 32(3)(b) amended by No. 70/2001 s. 24(1)(a).

(b) a person approved by the Director in writing for the purposes of this section.

(4) The report must contain the auditor's opinion on—

(a) whether the money received as a result of the appeal has been properly accounted for and applied; and

(b) whether the records and accounts in respect of the appeal have been properly kept in accordance with this Act; and

(c) whether the accounts show a true and fair view of the income and expenditure relating to the appeal.

S. 32(5) amended by No. 70/2001 s. 24(1)(a).

(5) The Director—

(a) may only issue a direction under subsection (1) within 3 years of the end of the appeal; and

(b) must allow the person who is given the direction a reasonable amount of time to comply with the direction; and

(c) is not liable for any costs in relation to the audit.

(6) If—

(a) the report of an auditor under this section states that a person may have committed an offence; and

(b) that person is prosecuted for the offence and a court finds the person guilty of, or convicts the person of, the offence—

the court may, on the application of the person who paid for the auditor's report, order the offender to pay to the applicant the cost of the report.

S. 32(7) amended by No. 2/2009 s. 21(1).

(7) Sections 86(2), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) and 87 of the Sentencing Act 1991 apply to subsection (6) as if a reference in those sections to an order made under section 86(1) of that Act was a reference to an order made under subsection (6).

(8) A receipt for the payment of the costs of an auditor's report that purports to be signed by, or on behalf, of the person responsible for the audit is evidence of the cost of the report.