The importance of adopting quality financial reporting and governance for the benefit of an organization and how that benefit creates value to the owners of the organisation was highlighted at a programme organized recently by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka).
The programme which focused on the relevance of reporting, both externally and internally also identified commonly encountered "sins" in reporting, and the limitations existent in corporate reporting.
The programme which featured two highly competent resource persons, Mr. Bachchi Samahon-Oumar and Mr. Richard Ebell also discussed matters relating to fraud and the need for due diligence by an investor. They also touched on factors constraining regulation, while emphasizing the important role of people and honest communication in good governance.
The programme saw the participation of directors, CFOs, general managers, finance managers, accountants, auditors and business consultants.
In his presentation, Mr. Samahon-Oumar shared a personal experience on the start-up stage of a company, and creating value for shareholders, while also touching on the adequacy of financial information in public traded companies.
Mr. Ebell in his presentation gave an overview on the lessons learnt from major frauds, and what is governance and how does it helps.He also shared his experience on essential elements of governance and how regulation must be effective.
Mr. Bachchi Samahon-Oumar has 20 plus years’ experience in finance and management. He has worked at Syringa Networks LLC as Vice President / CFO for the last twelve years. Syringa owns and operates a state-wide Fiber Optic Network serving the telecommunications industry in the US States of Idaho and Utah.
Mr. Richard Ebell, a fellow of CA Sri Lanka and counts for 37 years of post- qualification accounting, commercial and general management experience. He worked for Hayleys PLC for many of those years, in finance and operations, and was the Finance Director when he left the company in 2009. He now serves as an Independent Non- Executive Director of Finlays Colombo PLC, Laugfs Capital Ltd, and Softlogic Holdings PLC.
The programme concluded with a panel session which included the speakers and Mr. Suren Rajakarier, Partner – KPMG. The session was moderated by Ms. Nilanthi Sivapragasam, Chairperson of the Financial Reporting Faculty.
