asic...what do we pay them for?
While I am thinking about the amateurish appearance behind SWT's announcments I again thought about ASICS response to a question I asked.
As grant62 pointed out, People Telecom gave various figures for customer numbers, starting at 12, 000, then 16 000 a month later, then 10 000 six months later. When Colin Marland was asked which figure was the real one, he said none of these announcements were "official" figures. Under pressure, he tried to say one was customer numbers, and the other account numbers. But the wording on all announcements was customers.
So I wrote to ASIC to ask what constitutes "official" numbers in ASX announcements. Can a company legally say they have 16 000 customers, then 6 months later say they have 10 000 customers, but deny they have lost any custoemrs? Can a company essentially report any figures they like then later revise them by saying they arent official? Doesn't this leave the door open to report any figures they dream up to achieve whatever share price goals they want?
Adrian Reading from ASIC says that there was no "material breach" and that there was "continuous disclosure". It would seem that as long as the disclosure is continuous, it can be as innacurate as they like.
Am I missing something. Doesnt that mean we, shareholders, are fed whatever info is dreamt up with no protection from ASIC?
