P P Thimmaya
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has termed the recent anonymous whistleblower report alleging gross irregularities in its acquisition of Israeli company Panaya as attacks orchestrated by people who are hell-bent on harming the reputation of the company and its employees.
In a letter addressed to Infosys employees on Monday, Sikka said, “These speculations and fabrications are clearly designed to tarnish our reputation, and they specifically target our employees, including myself, to the point of harassment. They create a false alternate-reality out of events and dates, with embellishments that are calculated to mislead and sensationalise.”
The whistleblower letter made very serious allegations that Infosys had overpaid in its $200 million acquisition of Panaya in February, 2015 and even hinting certain personal gains for the key management personnel in the company.
Sikka in his letter said, “We have categorically denied the allegations in these stories, but they still get published. As we’ve said publicly before, we take every whistleblower complaint very seriously, and there is due process to investigate any complaint that comes to us.”
Infosys has been in the midst of a controversy with the founders raising questions on its corporate governance standards. The high severance payment to its former CFO Rajiv Bansal raised a lot of doubts and the whistleblower report linked it to the Panaya acquisition.
The annonymous letter alleged that Bansal probably knew many of the shortcomings in the Panaya acquisition and severance package was a means to silence the matter. Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy even went to the extent to terming it as some kind of “hush money”.
However Sikka remained combative and said, “We cannot let these stand unchallenged, and we will take every step and pursue every avenue to strongly defend the company in the face of these unfair and unwarranted attacks.”
The annonymous letter also attacked the Board of Infosys for blindly approving the Panaya deal. “There are serious issues on governance and nepotism in this deal which the Board of Infosys had never applied their mind and looked into,” the letter said.
Sikka in his communication to his employees termed these distractions as expensive, draining and time-consuming. “It is our burden to ensure that our company’s business continues unflinchingly,” he said.
The Infosys CEO felt that changes he is bringing with the company has “so inflamed some into trying to drag us all into the mud”.
“In the time of AI and of a pervasively digitizing world, our success will depend on our ability to automate, innovate and educate our way to the top,” he said.
Sikka also called upon his employees to rise above the distractions and focus on what really matters. “Our failure will be more than a failure of a company – it will be a failure of an industry, and a dream. We cannot let that happen.”