CA Sri Lanka members told to be alert against ‘forced’ mergers
The Institute of Chartered Accountants (CA Sri Lanka) has been ‘alerted’ by a prominent governance specialist to the ongoing financial sector reforms where ‘coerced mergers and acquisitions’ are taking place.
In a letter to CA Sri Lanka President Arjuna Herath, Nihal Sri Ameresekere, corruption-buster and veteran governance advocate, has ‘cautioned’ the institute of the “coerced’ mergers/acquisitions of finance companies, to which programme the Institute has lent its name or has been publicly identified, with members having been reported to have evaluated the finance companies”.
He said there is a lacuna or loop-hole in the law, whereby auditors’ valuations would be of no relevance to listed public companies doing finance business, where shares have been manipulated in the market to have fictitious questionably very high values.
“These being dumped or being forced to be acquired by banks would be a grave misapplication of public funds. You are an Ex-Officio Member statutorily appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by the Act of Parliament as the President of the Institute to uphold standards of the institute,” the letter, released to the media, said.
Mr. Ameresekere said he has received a number of complaints and this matter, which requires to be raised by the Institute in the public interest, in as much as the Institute has lent its name or has been identified with the process, inadvertently or otherwise.
“I trust that you would take an independent professional stance. This is an opportunity for the Institute to act in the public interest and to uphold the social contract,” he added.