COVID-19: Corporate governance best practices

The COVID-19 crisis is not just a health and well-being issue for businesses, but also a financial one that is severely disrupting operations across functions.

In recent times, lack of effective corporate governance has come to the fore in India. Organisations’ boards and senior management must be clear about their roles during a crisis.

Here is how leaders can HALT and consider adopting corporate governance best practices:

Keep the Board engaged and informed

• Senior management actions, guided by board members, will largely define the resilience of the organisation, while coming out of this crisis

Keep critical functions going

• Organisations need to make sure key control activities are performed and non-key monitoring controls are invoked where necessary

Manage working capital

• Assess short-term requirements of cash and sources available and work to secure the organisation’s liquidity requirements

Meet statutory obligations

• Identify protocols that ensure complete integrity and transparency of external reporting, performance of internal controls and safety of data

Recalibrate risk assessment

• Immediately revisit risk assessments and identify risks that may have been previously considered managed but are now potentially high risk

Tackling cyber risks

• Tackle cyber risks up till the end-point – have a robust cyber threat intelligence strategy and focus on data protection and security awareness levels of employees

… and many more

Grant Thornton’s Risk advisory team can help organisations maintain the effectiveness of their processes and controls, and provide a one-stop solution for their risk and process needs