Infosys' clean chit to Bansal on Panaya deal, probe details won't be made public

BENGALURU: Infosys said a review of the investigations of the Panaya deal reaffirms previous findings that there is no merit to the allegations of wrongdoing, giving a clean chit to former CFO Rajiv Bansal. This also gives a big boost to what former chairman R Seshasayee and former CEO Vishal Sikka had said previously. Contrary to founder-promoter NR Narayana Murthy's expectations, the new board under co-founder Nandan Nilekani has said that the company will also not release the full investigation report.
In a statement Nilekani said, “I believe that all stakeholders acted out of a strong passion for Infosys, wanting what they believed to be the best for the company and to see it succeed. In light of my review of these matters, I am fully persuaded, as is the entire Board, that the conclusions of the independent investigations are correct. This board and I are committed to the highest standards of professionalism and will deal promptly and decisively with any governance issues should they ever come up in the future.”
The precedent of releasing the full investigation reports could impair the cooperation of participants should the need for an investigation arise in the future, Infosys has stated repeatedly. The severance payments to the company’s former CFO could have been handled better, Infosys noted adding that it has identified opportunities for improvements in processes and practices and had been implemented.
"While the disclosures in this regard were timely, based on the feedback received, the company has since December 2016 adopted a practice of disclosing the severance payment to key managerial personnel (“KMP”) at the time of their departure, making the disclosures sooner than required," Infosys said in a statement. It added that the company benchmarked its severance pay to a global standard and revised its senior management employment contracts.