Companies need to allow anonymous whistle-blower complaints, says IiAS

Advisory firm IiAS has come out with a report that rates companies based on a corporate governance scorecard matrix.  The report evaluates the BSE 100 companies and the 50 companies that have listed on the BSE between 2015 and 2017.

“In terms of medians, Sensex companies’ median scores have increased from 60 to 61 but the highest score has seen a significant jump from 76 to 79 -- three points. It may look minimal but it is a set of 70 questions that are then weighted downwards to 100. Therefore, a three-point jump is quite material. At the higher end, companies are doing well and at the lower end, again we are seeing a pulldown – 47 as the lowest score last year has become 45 for the BSE 100,” said Hetal Dalal, COO of IiAS.

The medians are significantly lower for the initial public offering (IPO) companies.

“Some of the changes happened because the Sensex constituents have changed. But when you look at BSE-100, even medians remain stable at 58 percent vis-à-vis last year which has been difficult and at the higher end, we have seen companies do better, but at the lower end we have also seen a stretch downwards,” said Dalal.

“This year we have tightened our evaluation on the question of whistle-blower to say that companies need to allow anonymous complaints to be brought in because a lot of companies have a policy that anonymous complaints will not be entertained and the perspective is that when you have employees at the lower rung who understand that some of the wrong practices are happening, they may be fearful of approaching and putting their names to it. Therefore, you should allow anonymous practices. However, there is a dangerous trend of anonymous whistle-blowers going to the media. This whole issue of going to the media and becoming a trial by the media and the board having to react without real evidence becomes difficult and it is a bit of a challenge,” she observed.

-Cipla

-HUL

-HDFC

-Infosys

-Tata Power

-Wipro

-DRL

-HDFC Bank

-Marico

-Tata Motors

-ICICI Pru Life

-Narayana Health

-Syngene