Murthy flags 'huge' severance pay, governance issues at Infy

February 10, 2017 21:11

The rift between founders and the board of Infosys came to the fore today with co-founder N R Narayana Murthy raising questions about the "huge" severance package of Rs 23 crore paid to its former CFO, leading to

disquiet among employees and investors.

Murthy said he would not have flagged concerns if it had not been for the 1,800 e-mails he received from employees and investors highlighting the severance pay and governance issues at Infosys.

"If we had not seen the kind of thing that happened, if I had not received 1,800 e-mails from employees, from various investors about the severance pay, about some or the other governance issues, I would have had no worries," he said.

Stating that no severance packages were given to employees like Mohandas Pai, V Balakrishnan, B G Srinivas and Ashok Vemuri when they quit, Murthy said: "Therefore, there is a little bit of a consternation as to why such a huge severance pay was paid."

"Let me make it very very clear that it is not the management that concerns me. I think we are quite happy with Vishal Sikka, he is doing a good job. However, what concerns some of us, particularly the founders, and seniors, former Infoscions is that there have been certain acts of governance that could have been better," Murthy told news channel CNBC-TV18.

He cited the example of a 30-month severance pay being given to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal that amounted to Rs 23 crore.

He said there is no other case in the history of corporate India in the last 50 years where a departing CFO was paid 30 months of severance pay.

So, it is not that common (a practice), he added.

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