How To Hire a New Company Secretary in Malaysia

There are situations in which you might not be completely satisfied with the services you are getting from your existing company secretary in Malaysia. In this case, changing your company secretary should not be difficult if you are familiar with the rules and regulations associated with hiring and replacing the company secretary.

The Companies Act makes it compulsory for every company in Malaysia to appoint at least one company secretary to fulfil various company responsibilities. It is quite common for companies in Malaysia to change their company secretary.

In general, here are some of the common reasons why companies should consider changing their company secretary:

• The company secretary is not providing documents like meeting agendas in a timely manner.
• The company’s directors and stakeholders are not being reminded about the deadlines of different agendas and tasks.
• The company secretary is providing inaccurate or unreliable advice.
• The company is paying too much service fees for substandard services.

The following are some of the important factors that you should consider while changing the company secretary:

The board of directors takes the final decision about the appointment of the company secretary. Similarly, it has the power of removing the company secretary at any time. However, this decision must be taken after careful consideration and ensuring compliance with the law and the company’s constitution. 

Generally, the process starts when the board of directors ask to terminate the services of the company secretary. Next, the company will have 30 days to hire a new company secretary. If the office of a company secretary is left vacant for more than 30 days, the company can be liable for a fine of about RM50,000.

In order to avoid the fine and other legal issues, most companies remove the existing company secretary and hire a new one simultaneously. As a result, the board of directors is able to meet the deadline of 30 days and ensure smooth functioning of the business as the company secretary will start fulfilling their responsibilities immediately.

It is important that before the company initiates the process of changing the company secretary, the board of directors find a suitable candidate for the job and discuss with him or her about the job requirements and the reasons for changing the previous company secretary. In this way, the company will be able to make sure that the new company secretary fulfils the general responsibilities and avoid the unpleasant experience with the previous company secretary.

In order to legally change the company secretary, you will have to prepare certain documents to appoint a new company secretary and change the information of the company. It is the new company secretary’s responsibility to submit the required documents to the relevant authorities and gather all of the essential information and company documents from the current secretary.

Preparing the relevant documents can be challenging for a lot of companies, especially ones that are not familiar with this process. Such companies can rely on the professional services provided by accounting firms in Malaysia who have years of experience in dealing with such matters.

Recommendation

It is highly recommended that you change your company secretary after important deadlines such as tax filings and company registration. If you choose to initiate this process in the middle of significant deadlines, you can end up getting involved in legal and compliance issues.

In a Nutshell

There is no denying a company secretary plays an important role in most companies. This is especially true in Malaysia, where companies can be fined for not hiring a company secretary within 30 days of company incorporation.

Therefore, it’s strongly recommended for companies to pay special attention to the factors discussed above to ensure the process of hiring a new company secretary is smooth, efficient, and successful.