The Gazette 1980

GAZETTE

DECEMBER1980

The Benefit of the Doubt

companies must have their Annual Accounts audited by persons authorized by national law to audit accounts, but it does grant an option to Member States to exempt small companies (as defined below) from this obligation). Publication Generally, the Fourth Directive requires all companies to publish their Annual Accounts and the Auditor's Report in accordance with the publication requirements of the First Council Directive of_ 9 March 1968 (68/151/EEC, 1 However, Member States are allowed exempt "small" and "medium-sized" companies from some of these publication requirements. A small company 2 may be authorised to publish only an abridged Balance Sheet and abridged Notes to the accounts, being exempted entirely from the obligation to publish a Profit and Loss Account and Annual Report. A medium-sized company 3 may be allowed publish an, abridged Balance Sheet, abridged Profit and Loss Account and abridged Notes to the accounts. Pending the adoption of the draft Seventh Directive on consolidated accounts, Member States may exempt subsidiaries from the provisions of the Fourth Directive provided certain conditions are fulfilled: these include, in particular, that the subsidiaries' debts are publicly guaranteed by the parent and that its accounts are consolidated by the parent. In addition, parent companies may^be exempted from publishing a separate Profit and Loss Account if they produce consolidated accounts conforming as far as possible with the provisions of the Fourth Directive. Further Reading "Handbook on the EEC Fourth Directive": The Institute of Chartered Accounts in Ireland. "The Fourth Directive": Whinney Murray Ernst & Ernst (Kluwer Publishing, London). 2. A Company which does not exceed any two of the following critieria: (i) Balance Sheet total: 1,000,000 European Units of Account (i.e. about IR£670,000). (ii) Net turnover: 2,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£ 1,340,000). (iii) Average number of employees: 50. 3. A company which does not exceed any two. of the following criteria: critieria: (i) Balance Sheet total: 4,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£2,680,000). (ii) Net turnover: 8,000,000 EUA (i.e.: about IR£5,360,000). (iii) Average Number of Employees: 250. 1. O J . L65 of 14.3.68.

by Fr Eddie Brady, W.F., Longford* Before I became a priest I was Town Clerk of Cavan. The part of the job I liked best was attending the district court — as a witness, of course. We had prosecutions; rent defaulters; disputes over sewers; wasting of water and breaches of byelaws. I used to love listening to Justice Lavery. He was an old man — but his brain was young and active - he could spot a legal point or loophole like a hawk. What impressed me most about him was his fairness. Thirty years have passed since I saw him, but in my mind's eye I can still see him and hear him say, "There is a doubt in this case; I will therefore give the accused the benefit of that doubt". I thought again of him here in Africa. It was rather peculiar. We were having a Baptism course for adult pagans, boys and girls about eighteen years of age. Everything was ready; the Baptism would be next morning; they were decorating the bush Church; all were full of joy and enthusiasm. At dusk, I went to my hut to make myself a cup of tea. Then some neighbours came to see me. I invited them in and they sat on the mud floor. After some palaver they told me their complaint, which it upset me to hear. The complaint concerned Sylvia — one of the girls who was to be baptised next morning who, they said, secretly intended to marry a pagan boy. If this were true, she should not be baptised until the usual undertakings were given, but this would have to be investigated and approved by the Village Church Council. It would take days. I was distressed. I called Sylvia from the Church, where she was fixing flowers on the Altar. She came to my hut. We told her the rumour. She was very upset, and strongly denied it. She began to cry. I don't know whether it was her tears or the remembrance of that old judge back home that won the day for Sylvia, but I gave my verdict — I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Radiant with joy, she was baptised next morning along with her companions. She was right. The rumour was untrue. It was mere gossip. There is malicious gossip in Africa, just as in Ireland. What harm it can do! Sylvia is now married - to a Christian boy. She has three beautiful big-eyed black kids — two girls and one boy. Always, when I see her, I think of old Judge Lavery with his wig and gown and his, "benefit of the doubt" for he was human, and he had taught me to be human, too. *The author was appointed Town Clerk, Cavan, in 1953. 1953. He resigned in 1959 to study for the Missionary Priesthood with the White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa). He was ordained Priest in 1966. He taught in a secondary school in Tanzania, East Africa for five years. Then he was assigned to mission promotion in Ireland. Back in Africa (Tanzania again) in 1976, he had charge in a parish in a remote area in the bush. At present he is home again on mission promotion in Ireland. He hopes one day to return to his beloved Africa.

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