我國財務危機公司之實證研究-以公司內部監控機制為中心

• Main Author: 蔡金拋
• Other Authors: 林國全
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83866358145566253979

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 法律學系碩士班學士後法學組 === 94 === As social and economic globalization continues to deepen, companies appear to have become the core units for economic activity in country after country, gaining control over the lion’s share of resources and wealth with profound effects on people’s lives. And, with companies’ demands for funds growing ever greater, companies limited by shares are firmly entrenched as the dominant corporate form. Taiwan’s Company Law has repeatedly borrowed from foreign legislative examples. In this process, corporate organs of companies limited by shares have been designed by adopting a decentralized compartmentalized approach, with the shareholders’ meeting as the highest decision-making organ, the board of directors as the organ that executes the business of the company, and the supervisors as the standing supervisory organ; the purpose of this being to seek operational efficiency while avoiding the evils of monopolized power. However, with today’s ever-larger corporations and constantly changing business climate, the idea that this sort of distributed authority system can still provide effective balance for the corporate leadership function is being challenged and questioned more every day. Perhaps the best warning has come from the string of incidents involving “landmine stock” companies that have rocked the corporate and financial communities in Taiwan since 1998. Looking at the overall explanation for why these publicly listed companies encountered financial crises, one sees that some crises were originally catalyzed by the external economic environment, but most originated in the shortcomings of individuals and their plans: the leadership of these companies sacrificed the interests of the shareholding public, creditors and other stakeholders, using their control over their companies’ funds, assets, manpower and other resources to divert them for their own personal profit, leading their companies into crisis and even impacting the entire financial system. The Government has been aggressively addressing these problems and looking for solutions, and in 2001 major amendments to the Company Law were made. On the one hand, the reforms were towards greater openness and flexibility: out of respect for corporate self-governance, the prerogatives of boards were clearly laid out, the methods for electing directors and supervisors were made more flexible than before, and the qualifications for membership less restrictive. On the other hand, they were also aimed at making management more effective, moderately strengthening companies’ internal controls in order to prevent corporate officers from abusing their authority, once their prerogatives were liberalized, thereby harming the interests of shareholders and others stakeholders. For example, the law was revised or amended to provide rules for the certain dismissal of a director and time limits on the mandatory election of directors to fill vacant seats on the board; an amendment on provisional managers was added, and the threshold was lowered for legal action by shareholders’ representatives. On October 4 2002, The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation and the GreTai Securities Market (OTC) jointly established a code of practice for corporate governance; and on February 22 2002, Article 9 of “Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation Regulations for Review of Securities Listings” included for the first time rules providing for independent directors and supervisors, with the expectation that this would raise the quality of business operations. However, if the question is how to achieve balance between effective management and greater flexibility/liberalization, one must truly recall the lessons learned from the scandals of the past and absorb the legislative experience of other countries, then chart a path towards further reforms in Taiwan’s corporate law system. Therefore, this thesis shall take as the object of research the major financial crises that have occurred since 1998 and those public companies that have generated a high degree of concern within the society. It will summarize the reasons why their financial crises happened, refer in detail to other countries’ legal systems, and investigate problem with the corporate internal control system in Taiwan. It will further propose directions for legal reform and suggestions for structuring corporate organizations as follows: 1.Increase checks and balances among directors: a.Analyze and strictly limit transactions and crossholding of shares between related businesses; b.Discard the rules in items 2 and 3, Article 27 of the Company law; c.Discard system whereby one director may choose another as his/her representative at board meetings; and d.Give careful consideration to introducing independent board member system across the board. 2.Strengthen the independence of supervisors: a.Discard the rules in items 2 and 3, Article 27 of the Company Law; b.Analyze the current system for electing supervisors; and c.Give careful consideration to introducing independent supervisors system. 3.Improve the professional capabilities of supervisors: a.Analyze and strictly limit transactions and crossholding of shares between related businesses; b.Make the appointment of accountants to audit financial statements the responsibility of supervisors; and c.Make it a mandatory requirement that supervisors pass a qualifying examination. 4.Introduce a shareholder proposal system to increase shareholders’ control authority. 5.Improve the shareholders’ representative(legal) action system to increase the control authority of minority shareholders. 6.Strengthen system for bringing accusations. 7.Rebuild business ethics.