Section 340: Failure to keep accounting records

340. Failure to keep accounting records (1) Where on an investigation under Part XV or where a company is wound up, it is shown that proper accounting records were not kept by the company during the period of 2 years immediately preceding the [Issue 1] C35 – 200 Revised Laws of Mauritius commencement of the investigation or winding up or the period between registration of the company and commencement of the investigation or winding up, whichever is the lesser, any officer who is responsible by any act or omission for such default shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding 400,000 rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years. (2) In any proceedings against an officer charged with an offence under subsection (1), it shall be a defence to prove that the officer took all reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure that the requirements be complied with. (3) For the purposes of this section, proper accounting records shall be deemed not to have been kept in the case of any company— (a) where there have not been such accounting records as are necessary to exhibit and explain the transactions and financial position of the trade or business of the company, including books containing entries from day-to-day in sufficient detail of all cash received and cash paid, and, where the trade or business has involved dealings in goods, statements of the annual stock takings and, except in respect of goods sold by way of ordinary retail trade, of all goods sold and purchased, showing the goods and the buyers and sellers thereof in sufficient detail to enable those goods and those buyers and sellers to be identified; (b) where such accounting records have not been kept in such manner as to enable them to be conveniently and properly audited, whether or not the company has appointed an auditor.