Bursa chairman urges CFOs to be brave in raising 'red flags'

Bursa Malaysia Bhd chairman Datuk Shireen Ann Zaharah Muhiudeen said chief financial officers (CFOs) should be brave enough to voice out about any wrongdoings in the company

KUALA LUMPUR: Chief financial officers (CFOs) should be brave enough to voice out about any wrongdoings in the company, Bursa Malaysia Bhd chairman Datuk Shireen Ann Zaharah Muhiudeen said.

The CFOs according to her, need to be the gatekeepers of their company to ensure transparency and instil investors’ confidence into the industries and capital markets.   

"Governance is the baseline of transparency. If you are transparent in your processes, people will feel confident and once you have confidence, people will re-invest, whether it is long term, foreign direct investments (FDIs) or through equity markets. That is what we want.

"If CFOs are tough and are saying no, or if they see red flags, they must escalate it. It cannot be a situation where CFOs are frightened to say anything... even auditors are so scared," she told reporters after delivering her keynote address at the CFO Conference 2019 here on Thursday.

Shireen also stressed that it was important for everyone to come together as a group to empower each other to stand out and became stronger.

"When we are stronger, then we can get to a platform where people know that the CFOs are not going to tolerate nonsense, not going to tolerate questions of contracts and that they are going to say things that doesn't look right... and they will get legal counsel. These are all important attributes of a CFO," said Shireen. - Bernama