Powers and duties of the liquidator with regards to the drawing up of the accounts and the scheme of the distribution in the voluntary winding up of a company under the Companies Act 1995

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to examine the role of the liquidator in performing his accounting and legal duties regarding members' voluntary winding up as stipulated by the Companies Act 1995. An empirical study of the Companies Act 1995 relating to the 'provisions of dissolutions and consequential winding up' was carried out to obtain an overview of the different functions and duties of the liquidator during the liquidation process. The aim of the second phase of this study is to obtain a deep insight of how the local practitioners are dealing with problems occurring in valuing, realizing and distributing the assets and liabilities of the company. Reference was also made to the post balance sheet assets and liabilities but due to the limitation of words, they have been included in Appendix 3. In addition, a set of interviews with Maltese liquidators, lawyers and accountants of different audit firms were carried out as to obtain a detailed analysis of the liquidation process in practice. The third and last phase deals with the recommendations and suggestions to the present law in relation to this subject.