NASSCOM reinitiates ethics and governance committee

The country's software body Nasscom has reinitiated its ethics and governance committee to look into companies that violate the corporate governance norms. The committee was reconstituted after the Satyam fiasco and NASSCOM’s executive council will meet next week to discuss such corporate governance failures. NASSCOM says that the action to be taken against such companies is threefold- awareness, best practices and punitive action. The committee can recommend actions like debarring the company at fault.

Commenting on Satyam, NASSCOM President Som Mittal said that Satyam is a fraud issue and not a corporate governance issue. “It is an isolated case and not a reflection of the IT industry, which is robust on values and parameters. "The board of Satyam is doing a great job... It's a one-off case. Let us move on from what has happened in Satyam," he said.           

Mittal said that the companies have also gone an extra mile by doing more disclosures and the industry needs to prove that our governance standards are high.

“This is a serious issue and not just about the IT industry or corporate India but about the corporate world. For Satyam, our main concerns were employee attrition and business continuity,” added Mittal.