Murthy trains guns at Seshasayee for governance lapses

Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy on Tuesday raised concerns of corporate governance lapses in the company under the previous board led by non-executive chairman R Seshasayee, while reposing faith in his successor Nandan Nilekani.

In a statement issued after an investors' call, Murthy said his actions always keep in mind the long-term interests of all shareholders. "It has never been and never will be for my individual or personal gain. As far as I know, there is no parallel in the Indian corporate world where founders with significant shareholding voluntarily left their company leaving behind nothing but culture, values and good will," he said in the statement.

He pointed out that his main concern is the poor governance practised by the previous board. "This point has been missed in the entire commentary of this episode and in the “Summary Finding Statement” published by the company on June 23, 2017," he stated.

The most worrisome was the failure of governance at Infosys in this episode as alleged by the whistle-blower, Murthy stated. "Amongst the many allegations raised by the whistle-blower, the following were most striking, and I quote the whistle-blower verbatim: In the AGM in July, Seshasayee lies about the reason for payments made to the ex-CFO claiming it was made in consideration of his long service and to protect the company from its secrets being compromised. In reality, it was paid to protect the secrets of the CEO and the Board,” he added.

Since the company exonerated the board for the governance lapses, Murthy wanted the full report to be published. "In the absence of full disclosure, it is difficult to believe that under the previous Board Infosys has continued to maintain the highest standards of corporate governance that the company is known for,” he stated.

He also claimed that the previous board refused to take any corrective action.

Can sleep better

He pointed out that having worked with Nandan for long, he knows that he is a stickler for good corporate governance. "Now, we can all sleep better knowing that, under his leadership, the corporate governance standard practised by Infosys will be on par with the global best standard," he said.

Murthy reiterated that his primary concern about the Summary Finding Statement was that it missed covering the governance deficits and corrective steps to be taken, if any. "The previous board refused to take any corrective action.