Chairman mulled stepping down from board thrice

BENGALURU: Infosys chairman

R Seshasayee

said he contemplated stepping down thrice in the last 18 months since the spat between the board and the founders, led by founder N R Narayana Murthy, became public but resisted as he felt such a decision would not mitigate any issues.

Murthy has been scathing about the board since the beginning of this year, alleging a slip in governance standards on issues ranging from former CFO Rajiv Bansal's severance package and appointment of

Punita Sinha

as independent director to suspicions about the real motive behind the Panaya deal and the decision to raise CEO Sikka's pay last year by 55%.

“If that is going to solve the problem, I will be first to do so now. And I make this public that I have asked myself this question and I have asked my colleagues in the board this question not once, not twice but three

times

in the last 18 months,“

Seshasayee

said in a news conference on Friday .

The former Ashok Leyland chief, who retires as chairman next May , said it was unfortunate that Sikka decided to leave despite the support from the board. “The core of this is not about if the investigation re port has to be made public, the core of the problem is this ques tion if there was a mis deed. That has hurt him,“ he said. He explained that the company responded to whistleblower complaints about the acquisition of Panaya, which got linked to former CFO Rajiv Bansal's severance package, leading to a perception that it was hush money . The law firm Infosys appointed to look into these allegations gave it a clean chit.

“The independence of the investigation agencies is a crucial part of it. To suggest that world-renowned law and forensic firms will connive with the board and overlook something, and present their report is completely untenable. Then we trust nobody -we don't trust the board, we don't trust independent auditors and feel that they are in connivance,“ he said.

Seshasayee said in spite of the company's best efforts, it had not been able to satisfy the promoters who continued to raise concerns about the Panaya deal. “There is only so much that you can do and even after that if you cannot satisfy , you have to say that's the end and do what is important for the company ,“ he said.

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