Parliament approves to shorten appointment duration of company BoDs

Parliament today passed the amendment proposing to shorten the duration within which Board of Directors (BoDs) must be appointed to companies after a position becomes vacant.

The bill was passed unanimously with 85 votes, during an extraordinary sitting of the parliament held today.

The bill was proposed by North Feydhoo MP Ismail Nizar, and passed as was proposed by the government, with no additional amendments.

Although an extraordinary sitting was held yesterday to debate the bill, the session ended within an hour due to the lack of members' attendance. Once the bill was called for a vote, it was accepted and was forwarded to the Economic Committee of the Parliament for further consideration. The committee met within 30 minutes of the bill being passed, and the meeting lasted for about 10 minutes before it was sent back with no changes.

Under the current law, the Registrar of Companies has the power to order the appointment of managing directors and directors of public and private companies within 30 days of vacancy. However, the new amendment shortens this period to 10 days.

In addition, the amendment includes shortening the period for holding general meetings of companies. Currently, the law requires notice of such a meeting to be sent within 21 days of the request, but the new amendment shortens that period to three days.

Currently, notice of an extraordinary general meeting must be sent 14 days in advance. However, the government's new amendment proposes to shorten the period to seven days.