First Director General of SLAASMB retires
View(s):Ajith S. Ratnayake, Director General of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) retires on 24 January 2014, on reaching the retirement age of 60 years.
The organisation said in a media release that Mr. Ratnayake joined SLAASMB as its first Director General in 1998 and was instrumental in setting up its monitoring mechanism. Prior to joining SLAASMB, he served in the private sector as CFO and CEO in Sri Lanka and abroad. In his last assignment in the private sector, he headed the setting up of the finance division of a joint venture Vodafone (UK) established in Fiji.
“Corrections made by SLAASMB during the last 15 years amounted to a total of Rs. 58 billion. Corrections made to financial statements of listed companies are estimated to have affected their prices to an extent of 5 per cent of the market capitalisation of the Colombo Stock Exchange. This year (2013) SLAASMB commenced issuing letters of comfort to companies whose financial statements did not have any issues in relation to compliance with standards. SLAASMB has issued letters of comfort to 275 companies during the year,” the statement added.
SLAASMB monitors compliance with accounting standards by entities within its purview and auditing standards by their auditors. Entities within its purview, known as specified business enterprises (SBEs) include all quoted companies, companies carrying on business which are important for the purpose of monitoring (such as banking, finance, insurance, and leasing), other large companies (public and private), and public corporations. All specified business enterprises are required to send their annual audited financial statements to SLAASMB. The Board has the power to compound an offence for a sum of money not exceeding one-third the maximum fine. In cases where noncompliance was done deliberately to mislead the public the courts may impose penalties extending up to five years imprisonment.