634

SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
Disqualification ~~ 133,—(1) None of the following persons shall be qualified for
for appointment 5 hointment as auditor of a company—

(a) a director or officer of the company;

(b) except where the company is a private company, a person
who is a partner of or in the employment of an officer of the
company;

(¢) a body corporate.
(2) Nothing in this section shall disqualify a body corporate
from acting as auditor of a company if acting under an appointment
made before the third day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-
eight, but subject as aforesaid any body corporate which acts as
auditor of a company shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one
hundred pounds.

(3) In the application of this section to Scotland the expression
“body corporate” does not include a firm.

Auditors’ report 134,—(1) The auditors shall make a report to the members on
A to the accounts examined by them, and on every balance sheet laid
books and right before the company in general meeting during their tenure of office,
fo attend general and the report shall state—
(a) whether or not they have obtained all the information and
explanations they have required; and
whether, in their opinion, the balance sheet referred to
in the report is properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true
and correct view of the state of the company’s affairs
according to the best of their information and the explana-
tions given to them, and as shown by the books of the
company.
(2) Every auditor of a company shall have a right of access

at all times to the books and accounts and vouchers of the company,
and shall be entitled to require from the directors and officers of the
company such information and explanation as may be necessary for
the performance of the duties of the auditors:
"Provided that, in the case of a banking company which was
registered after the fifteenth day of August, eighteen hundred and
seventy-nine, and which has branch banks beyond the limits of
Europe, it shall be sufficient if the auditor is allowed access to such
copies and extracts from such books and accounts of any such
branch as have been transmitted to the head office of the company
in Great Britain.
(3) The auditors of a company shall be entitled to attend any
general meeting of the company at which any accounts: which
have been examined or reported on by them are to be laid before
the company and to make any statement or explanation they
desire with respect to the accounts.