Company books and registers

 Books defined: s9

S286 requires companies to maintain financial records of a sufficient standard to enable true and fair financial statements to be prepared.

Security

Keeping company books secure is an obligation of directors and officers under section 180 of the Corporations Act, the duty of care and diligence.

Section 1306(3) Corporations Act states that "A corporation must take all reasonable precautions ... for guarding against damage to, destruction of or falsification of or in, and for discovery of falsification of or in, any book or part of a book required by this Act to be kept or prepared by the corporation."

This makes it a duty of the directors to consider fire protection, anti-theft and other security measures of all their records, whether physical or electronic.

The concealment, destruction, mutilation or falsification of any books is an offence. s1307

Where ASIC is investigating, or about to investigate, a matter, destruction of records may be a breach of s 67 of the ASIC Act.

Access to company records