Days after Infosys CEO Salil Parekh was given a clean chit in a major probe into whistleblower allegations of financial impropriety against him and other company executives, the IT mogul said that he is now focusing on moving the business forward for a burgeoning digital future.
Emerging unharmed from the mammoth probe, Parekh in an interview with CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, asserted that the investigation by the audit committee was thorough and its findings vindicate him.
“The way this has worked out, as you saw last week, our audit committee and the board have completed the investigation and essentially have found nothing of merit in those points of views that were put forward,” CNBC quoted Parikh as saying, who had earlier recused himself from the investigation.
Talking about the tumultuous experience, Parikh said he spent most of his time doing the work of the company, while also assisting with the investigation.
When asked about the seeming disarray of things within Infosys and the flux of uncertainty that has rocked the enterprise recently, Parekh said that Infosys enjoys a deep connection with its clients "despite a sequence of uncharitable news coming out of the company" in recent times.
“My own sense is we are driving the business for the digital future and the processes that we have—how we look at our clients, how we look at things within the company—those are the processes that are robust,” he said, going on to explain the strength of the company’s relationship with its clients.
“People trust Infosys to deliver,” he said.
In October, Infosys had informed the stock exchanges of having received anonymous whistleblowers' complaints alleging certain unethical practices by the top management.
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani had said the whistleblower complaint dated September 20, as well as an undated complaint had been received by one of the board members on September 30.
In the letter, dated September 20, and signed by 'Ethical Employees', it was alleged that CEO Salil Parikh as well as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nilanjan Roy engaged in forced revenue recognition from large contracts not adhering to accounting standards.
The complaints were placed before the audit committee on October 10, and to the company's non-executive board members on October 11, also the day when Infosys announced its second-quarter results.
US market regulator SEC has also initiated a probe on the matter, while Rosen Law Firm had said it was preparing a class-action suit to recover losses suffered by Infosys investors in the US.
However, Parekh was unperturbed by the sword of pending investigations dangling above him, lauding once again, the 'strong' processes' at Infosys in probing the allegations.
“The work that is being done in this review has been extremely detailed and thorough about 200,000 odd individual elements that we have looked at, 77 different people that we have interviewed. So the sense that I have, the way that the board has done, the audit committee is extremely detailed,” he was quoted as saying.
“I am back as I was in the past quarter on the business and that is our focus,” he added.
When asked if there has been an update from the SEC on the matter, the Infosys CEO said that he is no longer a part of the main persons dealing with the probe. “I have recused myself from that, so there is no update from me,” he said.
Parekh revealed that Infosys has a strong deal pipeline and its digital business has grown considerably. He also talked about the company’s hiring numbers and focus areas for the future.
“We feel quite confident of what we see for this fiscal year and the pipeline overall. This quarter of course we will spend time, look at what our next fiscal year is going to look like and then start to build the estimates,” he said.
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