Past version: Effective up to 31 Dec 2004
The Board's Conduct of its Affairs
Principle:
1 Every company should be headed by an effective Board to lead and control the company.
Guidance Notes:
1.1 The Board should meet regularly and as warranted by particular circumstances, as deemed appropriate by the board members. Companies are encouraged to amend their Articles of Association to provide for telephonic and videoconference meetings. The number of board meetings held in the year, as well as the attendance of every board member at those meetings and meetings of specialised committees established by the Board, should be disclosed in the company's annual report.
1.2 Companies should adopt internal guidelines setting forth matters that require board approval, and specify in their corporate governance disclosures the type of material transactions that require board approval under such guidelines.
1.3 Every director should receive appropriate training (including his or her duties as a director and how to discharge those duties) when he is first appointed to the Board. This should include an orientation-training program to ensure that incoming directors are familiar with the company's business and governance practices. It is equally important that directors should receive further relevant training, particularly on relevant new laws, regulations and changing commercial risks, from time to time.
Board Composition and Balance
Principle:
2 There should be a strong and independent element on the Board, which is able to exercise objective judgement on corporate affairs independently, in particular, from Management. No individual or small group of individuals should be allowed to dominate the Board's decision making.
Guidance Notes:
2.1 There should be a strong and independent element on the Board, with independent directors making up at least one-third of the Board. An "independent" director is one who has no relationship with the company, its related companies1 or its officers that could interfere, or be reasonably perceived to interfere, with the exercise of the director's independent business judgement with a view to the best interests of the company. Examples of such relationships, which would deem a director not to be independent, include:
a) a director being employed by the company or any of its related companies for the current or any of the past three financial years;
b) a director who has an immediate family member2 who is, or has been in any of the past three financial years, employed by the company or any of its related companies as a senior executive officer whose remuneration is determined by the remuneration committee;
c) a director accepting any compensation from the company or any of its related companies other than compensation for board service for the current or immediate past financial year; or
d) a director being a substantial shareholder of or a partner in (with 5% or more stake), or an executive officer of, any for-profit business organisation to which the company made, or from which the company received, significant payments in the current or immediate past financial year. As a guide, payments3 aggregated over any financial year in excess of S$200,000 should generally be deemed significant.
2.2 The four relationships set out above are not intended to be exhaustive, and are examples of situations which would deem a director to be not independent. If the company wishes, in spite of the existence of one or more of these relationships, to consider the director as independent, it should disclose in full the nature of the director's relationship and bear responsibility for explaining why he should be considered independent.
2.3 The Board should examine its size and, with a view to determining the impact of the number upon effectiveness, decide on what it considers an appropriate size for the Board, which facilitates effective decision making. The Board should take into account the scope and nature of the operations of the company.
2.4 The Board should comprise directors who as a group provide core competencies such as accounting or finance, business or management experience, industry knowledge, strategic planning experience and customer-based experience or knowledge.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Principle:
3 There should be a clear division of responsibilities at the top of the company — the working of the Board and the executive responsibility of the company's business — which will ensure a balance of power and authority, such that no one individual represents a considerable concentration of power.
Guidance Notes:
3.1 The roles of chairman and chief executive officer ("CEO") should in principle be separate, to ensure an appropriate balance of power, increased accountability and greater capacity of the Board for independent decision making. In addition, companies should disclose the relationship between the chairman and CEO where they are related to each other (i.e. be of the same immediate family, as defined in footnote 2).
3.2 The chairman should:
a) schedule meetings that enable the Board to perform its duties responsibly while not interfering with the flow of the company's operations;
b) prepare meeting agenda in consultation with the CEO;
c) exercise control over quality, quantity and timeliness of the flow of information between Management and the Board; and
d) assist in ensuring compliance with company's guidelines on corporate governance.
3.3 The responsibilities set out in the above guidelines pertain only to the chairman's role in respect of board proceedings. It should not be taken as a comprehensive list of all the duties and responsibilities of a chairman.
Board Membership
Principle:
4 There should be a formal and transparent process for the appointment of new directors to the Board. As a principle of good corporate governance, all directors should be required to submit themselves for re-nomination and re-election at regular intervals.
Guidance Notes:
4.1 Companies should establish a Nominating Committee ("NC") to make recommendations to the Board on all board appointments. The NC should comprise at least three directors, a majority of whom, including the chairman, should be independent. The NC should have written terms of reference that describes the responsibilities of its members, and its membership is disclosed annually.
4.2 The NC should be charged with the responsibility of re-nomination having regard to the director's contribution and performance (e.g. attendance, preparedness, participation and candour) including, if applicable, as an independent director. As a principle of good corporate governance, all directors should be required to submit themselves for re-nomination and re-election at regular intervals and at least every three years.
4.3 The NC is also charged with determining annually whether or not a director is independent, bearing in mind the circumstances set forth in paragraph 2.1 and any other salient factors. If the NC determines that a director who has one or more of the relationships mentioned therein is in fact independent, the company should make such disclosure as stated in paragraph 2.2.
4.4 When a director has multiple board representations, he or she must ensure that sufficient time and attention is given to the affairs of each company. The NC should decide whether or not a director is able to and has been adequately carrying out his/her duties as director of the company. Internal guidelines should be adopted that address the competing time commitments that are faced when directors serve on multiple boards.
4.5 Key information regarding directors, such as academic and professional qualifications, shareholding in the company and its subsidiaries, board committees served on (as a member or chairman), date of first appointment as a director, date of last re-election as a director, directorships or chairmanships both present and those held over the preceding three years in other listed companies and other major appointments, should be disclosed in the annual report. In addition, the company's annual disclosure on corporate governance should indicate which directors are executive, non-executive or considered by the NC to be independent. The names of the directors submitted for election or re-election should also be accompanied by such details and information to enable shareholders to make informed decisions.
Board Performance
Principle:
5 There should be a formal assessment of the effectiveness of the Board as a whole and the contribution by each director to the effectiveness of the Board.
Guidance Notes:
5.1 The NC should decide how the Board's performance may be evaluated and propose objective performance criteria. Such performance criteria, that allow comparison with its industry peers, should be approved by the Board and address how the Board has enhanced long term shareholders' value. These performance criteria should not be changed from year to year, and where circumstances deem it necessary for any of the criteria to be changed, the onus should be on the Board to justify this decision.
5.2 In addition to any relevant performance criteria which the Board may propose, the performance evaluation should also consider the company's share price performance over a five-year period vis-à-vis the Singapore Straits Times Index and a benchmark index of its industry peers. Other performance criteria that may be used include return on assets ("ROA"), return on equity ("ROE"), return on investment ("ROI"), economic value added ("EVA") and profitability on capital employed.
5.3 Every Board should implement a process to be carried out by the NC for assessing the effectiveness of the Board as a whole and for assessing the contribution by each individual director to the effectiveness of the Board. This assessment process should be disclosed annually.
Access to Information
Principle:
6 In order to fulfil their responsibilities, board members should be provided with complete, adequate and timely information prior to board meetings and on an on-going basis.
Guidance Notes:
6.1 Management has an obligation to supply the Board with complete, adequate information in a timely manner. Reliance purely on what is volunteered by Management is unlikely to be enough in all circumstances and further enquiries may be required if the particular director is to fulfil his or her duties properly. Hence, the Board should have separate and independent access to the company's senior management.
6.2 Information provided should include background or explanatory information relating to matters to be brought before the Board, copies of disclosure documents, budgets, forecasts and monthly internal financial statements. In respect of budgets, any material variance between the projections and actual results should also be disclosed and explained.
6.3 Directors should have separate and independent access to the company secretary. The role of the company secretary should be clearly defined and should include responsibility for ensuring that board procedures are followed and that applicable rules and regulations are complied with. The company secretary should attend all board meetings.
6.4 The Board should have a procedure for directors, either individually or as a group, in the furtherance of their duties, to take independent professional advice, if necessary, at the company's expense.
1 A related company in relation to a company includes its subsidiary, fellow subsidiary, or parent company.
2 As defined in the Listing Manual of the Singapore Exchange to mean the spouse, child, adopted child, step-child, brother, sister and parent.
3 Payments for transactions involving standard services with published rates or routine and retail transactions and relationships (for instance credit card or bank or brokerage or mortgage or insurance accounts or transactions) will not be taken into account, unless special or favourable treatment is accorded.