CII task force advocates standardisation in corporate governance

With an increased focus on transparency in balance sheets in India Inc., the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Gujarat Chapter, organised an exclusive CFO forum on 'Corporate Governance' in Ahmedabad. The forum called for setting up a committee to pursue standardisation of disclaimers given by independent auditors, among other things.

The forum was organised to highlight latest trends in corporate governance and share perceptions, experience of the CFOs and CEOs on the governance practices and the new challenges for the industries. The forum also exchanged ideas and opinions about Corporate Governance as an effective tool to enhance trust among the stake holders and highlighted the issues raised in the report compiled by CII task force on Corporate Governance.

"There is an increased need of independent auditors who need to be separated from auditing companies. There is a risk in relying on auditing companies and an independent auditor will have to rely on himself. A task force set up by CII on corporate governance, in fact, has advocated setting up of a committee by a company to standardise disclaimers given by these auditors," said Sugata Sircar, chairman - CII's CFO Forum 2009 and finance director, Gujarat Gas Company Ltd.

The Forum offered a distinctive opportunity for genuine peer-to-peer debate among the CFO and CEO colleagues where the topics for discussion were around the latest trends in corporate governance, sharing perceptions and experience on the governance practices, the new challenges and highlighted the issues raised in the report compiled by CII task force on Corporate Governance.

"Most of the companies are promoter controlled which makes separation of ownership and management difficult. Therefore, more professional and independent CFOs and directors should be appointed. Moreover, good corporate governance cannot be achieved without transparency. Unless the organisation is transparent, it cannot have good corporate governance," said Rangarao V Dani, Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India at the forum.

The forum was also attended by Naishadh I Parikh, Past Chairman, CII Gujarat Council & Chairman, Task Force on Gujarat, Economic Affairs & Taxation and Managing Director Equinox Solutions Ltd.; V V S Murthy, Chief Financial Officer, Dishman Pharmaceuticals Ltd.; Kaushik D Shah, Chartered Accountant Dhirubhai Shah & Co. and R D Gupta, Deputy Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.