Bengaluru, Global software major Infosys on Friday said its internal audit committee found no evidence of financial impropriety or executive misconduct against Chief Executive Salil Parikh and Chief Financial Officer Nilanjan Roy on the several allegations levelled against them by anonymous employees.
“I am pleased that after rigourous investigation, the audit committee has found no wrongdoing by the company or its executives,” said Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani in a regulatory filing.
“The allegations are substantially without merit,” said Infosys in the regulatory filing before releasing its Q3 results on Friday.
The audit committee roped in legal counsel Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and PricewaterhouseCoopers to probe the allegations.
Nilekani said the investigation team conducted 128 interviews with 77 persons, including relevant company personnel concerned with or mentioned in the allegations.
According to the audit committee, the company identified 46 custodians to collect the relevant documents and electronic data pertaining to the damaging whistleblower complaints.
Nilekani said that the company pored over 2,10,000 documents from electronic sources and image devices, amounting to a mammoth data bank of 8 terabytes.
“The investigation team’s review of information pertaining to the allegations encompassed the time period January 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019,” he said.
According to the Infosys chairman, the company did not place any restrictions or limitations on the investigating team to access information, as the company, its directors and employees totally cooperated.
Nilekani said Infosys also consulted with independent internal auditor Ernst & Young regarding large deals and treasury related processes, which was also shared with the investigation team.
“Infosys’ well established whistleblower policy has been in place over 15 years and ensures that the company both promotes the highest ethical standards and maintains a workplace that facilities the reporting of potential violations of company policies and applicable laws,” said the company.
In Q3, the Indian IT firm faced a plethora of serious allegations from its employees who called themselves “ethical employees”, trying to expose alleged wrongdoing by Parikh and Roy.
Allegations ranged from racism and misogyny to compelling finance teams to refrain from recognising reversals of $50 million of upfront payment in FDR contract and many others.
The complaints reverberated in the USs, with the Securities and Exchange Commission initiating a probe and a couple of law firms initiating action on Infosys.
