After tackling the issues related to CEO Vishal Sikka’s compensation package, Infosys board on Monday sought to quell the concerns on former CFO Rajiv Bansal’s high severance pay, even while admitting that the company might have erred in awarding him this money.
‘Judgement’ on Bansal’s severance pay could have been different, Infosys’ non-executive Chairman R Seshasayee said at a press conference.
Seshasayee further disclosed that out of the agreed Rs 17.38 crore, the company decided to pay Bansal only Rs 5 crore later, with the remaining amount being withheld pending clarifications on the terms of the severance contract.
“The severance agreement is being administered in accordance with the contractual rights and obligations. Certain payments to Rajiv under the agreement have been suspended pending certain clarifications with regard to such rights and obligations,” the company had said in a statement then.
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INFOSYS CHMN: There Will Be No ‘Rajiv Bansal’ Situations Here On. R Seshasayee, Chairman, Infosys responds to CNBC-TV18’s query. pic.twitter.com/qi3kA3XHCC
— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 13, 2017
Stressing that the ‘subjectivity element’ should be taken away in severance packages, Seshasayee added that there will be no more Rajiv Bansal-like situation at the company, as the company has now formulated standardised practices and has benchmarked the severance pay packages.
Bansal is one of the three executives whose high salaries and severance packages have created a turmoil at Infosys, with three founders – N R Narayana Murthy, Kris Gopalakrishnan and Nandan Nilekani writing to the board last month expressing their concerns over corporate governance.
Bansal’s severance package by Infosys amounted to Rs 17.38 crore, equalling his 24 month’s pay, Infosys said in a statement last year. For the year ending March 2015, his salary package of $770,858 at Infosys was next only to the Chief Operating Officer U B Pravin Rao and Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka.
Infosys Ltd’s three founders, in their letter to the board had raised questions over the quantum of salary hike given to the Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka and the size of the severance packages given to Bansal and former General Counsel David Kennedy.
On its part, Infosys said that it had already addressed concerns about executive pay, and that “all decisions have been made bona fide in the overall interest of the company” and that full disclosures had already been made.
Seshasayee said that Rajiv Bansal’s exit from the company was on mutually agreed upon terms as CEO Vishal Sikka had team chemistry issues with him. He also said that while the concerns raised over Bansal’s severance package are valid, the allegations of it being ‘hush money’ are deeply disturbing.
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Seshasayee also responded to the issue of former General Counsel David Kennedy’s severance payout by saying that it was done in accordance with the contract. In a January filing with the US market regulator, Infosys, which is also listed on Nasdaq, said Kennedy, who quit the company last December, would receive severance payments of $868,250 and other reimbursements over 12 months.
“Infosys has followed the right path on severance pay of David Kennedy,” Seshasayee said.