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Discussion highlights instrumental role of board committees in enhancing transparency

07 Oct 2009

ACCA Pakistan has issued a discussion paper calling for a debate into the business case for board committees other than audit committees.

The paper, Looking Beyond Audit, comes as a review of Pakistan's Code of Corporate Governance gets under way. Among the issues the paper considers is whether board efficiency and effectiveness can be enhanced by delegating a selection of an audit committee's workload to alternative boards, such as remuneration, corporate governance and ethics committees.

Looking Beyond Audit was officially launched by ACCA at a discussion forum in Karachi on 1 October, at which Dr Afra Sajjad, ACCA Pakistan's head of education and policy development, highlighted the vital role boards play in promoting ethics in business.

‘Hopefully, [the paper] will bring about recommendations, and consider whether regulators and business in Pakistan need to look beyond audit committees to ensure that we are on par with corporate governance best practice around the world,' said Dr Sajjad.

Among the other panellists addressing delegates at the forum were:

• Fuad Azam Hashimi, chief executive, Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance
• Moin Fuda, country director, Center for International Private Enterprise
• Khursheed Kotwal, corporate finance director, Unilever Pakistan
• Haroon Tabraze, chairman, ACCA Pakistan Corporate Governance Sub-committee (South).