Are there any new powers given to the liquidator that he would not have had under the old law?
SECTION 231.
No.
Is the Minister satisfied that the existing law gives all the necessary powers?
Nobody has suggested that the existing law does not provide all the necessary powers.
There are many cases in which the liquidator comes in and sits down on the company's affairs, and it is an extremely difficult job to dislodge him. If anything could be done to supervise the liquidator and help expeditiously to terminate the winding up proceedings, it would help a lot of people who are seriously affected by winding up operations.
It is difficult to introduce a time limit. The liquidator is both a trustee for the creditors and for the shareholders. He has to balance the interests of one against the other. It is hard to fix a time limit.
The next section provides for the appointment of committees of inspection as a means of ensuring that the liquidator will be expeditious.
It might have the opposite effect.
I move amendment No. 80 :
In subsection (1), line 35, to delete " the liquidator shall summon " and to substitute " the liquidator shall if the court by order so directs summon a meeting of the creditors of the company or ".
Section 232 is new. The purpose of the amendment is to give the court a discretion in the matter of the summoning by the liquidator of meetings of creditors and contributories. As at present drafted it is mandatory on the liquidator to do it but it is desirable, I think, to give the court discretion in this matter.