Infosys won't make Panaya probe reports public

IT major Infosys on Thursday declined to make public the investigation reports on the Panaya deal as sought by its co-founder N R Narayana Murthy.

Amidst the re-emergence of the differences between the company’s board and its founder/promoter, the Bengaluru-based IT company told DH: “The company does not plan to make the report public”.

Recently, Murthy wrote to the board of the company asking them to make the investigation reports public. The company had commissioned an independent investigation after two whistleblower complaints to market regulator Sebi alleged irregularities in its $200 million acquisition of Israeli company Panaya. The investigation was also conducted over the severance payout made to former CFO Rajiv Bansal and alleged excessive expenses incurred by its current CEO Vishal Sikka in Palo Alto.

The company had published the conclusion of the independent investigation by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP an international law firm, and Control Risks, a global risk consultancy on June 23, 2017. Murthy, who wants the board to make the entire report and its scope public, to enhance transparency and accountability, is currently in US. He, however, did not respond to an email query sent by DH, till the time of going to press.

A day before its AGM, the audit committee had said that, “We found no evidence supporting the whistleblower’s allegations regarding the acquisitions — there were no conflicts of interest or kickbacks, required approvals for the acquisitions were obtained, thorough due diligence was conducted, the valuations of the target companies done by an outside financial advisor were reasonable, and the purchase prices were within the range of values determined by that advisor.