Daily Times

In the modern corporate world the concept of a ‘Seth’ or family-owned company does not exist and instead the ownership rights vest amongst the shareholders. There is a delicate relationship between strategic shareholders — those with controlling shares — and the minority shareholders who invest at the bourses. Further down the ladder, corporate managers deal with the day to day management of the companies. In order to protect the investment of the shareholders, corporate governance structures have evolved in the West to address ‘conflicting interests’ appearing and manifested at times where divergence of approach is manifested between shareholder objectives and managerial expediencies, and the regulatory regimes are supposed to draw a distinction between the shareholders’ interests and the managers at the helm of affairs.

There are various corporate models of business. In the West the public sector has little or no corporate presence with an independent regulator which has enhanced enforcement capacity. In the Arab and Middle Eastern region the corporate sector, dominated by the petroleum sector, is in the public sector and owned by a coterie of individuals usually along family ties. Chinese capital is locked up in state owned banks and companies and only recently has China started to adopt international disclosure regulations to attract Western firms having the advantage of advanced technology for joint ventures.

In Pakistan, the private sector competes with the public sector with the latter having access to substantial state funding which is not contingent on performance. Until recently the access to credit by the private sector had been crowded out due to excessive government reliance on bank borrowings. Within the public sector, yet another structure exists which is performing well on the bourses but the shareholders cannot acquire controlling interests.

Western economies are essentially corporatised. And to sustain their corporate identities, even if the strategic ownership extends beyond their borders corporate governance (CG), structures have evolved to establish self-perpetuating systems for controlling and directing the strategic businesses interests. Underlying management is a corporate ethos comprising a tradition of accepted principles by management of the inalienable rights of a shareholder as the rightful and beneficial owner of the corporation and of their own role as trustees looking after the interests of the shareholders. The Western corporate models rightfully boast of accountability, transparency, fairness and disclosure as the essence of the modern corporate regulatory system.

The list of corporate scandals or dubious accounting practices commences from AOL Time Warner barter deals and advertisements sold on behalf of others and recorded as revenue to keep its growth rate high. Perhaps the worst example of fraudulent accounting instances in collusion with the executive management involves Enron which concealed debts totaling over USD1 billion for years and artificially boosted its profits involving manipulation of the Texas power and California energy markets while indulging in corrupt practices to acquire contracts overseas. In the telecom sector the Canadian giant telecom equipment manufacturer Nortel Networks was subjected to grilling review by the regulator from 2001 to 2004 due to material failings in internal controls and its previous executives were suspected of committing accounting irregularities with the purpose of artificially boosting revenue.

A case in point was the Royal Dutch/Shell Group with a global footprint of energy and petrochemical companies with the corporate encountering intense criticism and scrutiny when executives made the first of four restatements pertaining to its oil and gas reserves and was fined 17 million pounds by the regulator. Similar scandals involving poor internal controls were replete in WorldCom, Madoff, and Satyam emphasising that corporate deceit requires regulators to develop stringent mechanisms to prevent reoccurrences.

Biometrics are routinely used to monitor attendance and security concerns. However, cyber-crime still occurs, causing a dependence on digital forensic firms

Information technology is commonly utilised by big businesses for smooth operations and to match competing businesses. From security to enhancement of features to attract clientele, significant investment is plowed in to maintain confidence and integrity of consumer data. In the banking and financial corporate sector, massive usage of various electronic financial and informative transactions is resorted to through automated teller machines, credit and debit cards, shopping through online portals and payment of utility services through the comfort of home.

Biometrics are routinely used for monitoring attendance and security concerns. However, cyber crime still occurs causing a dependence on acquiring services and expertise of digital forensic firms.

An emerging discipline known as Digital Forensic is known as the process which identifies, preserves, analyses and presents the digital evidences in a legally recognised manner. Transformation of business processes from manual to digital is at the cost of employment generation. However, that is a scenario which the policymakers need to acknowledge and then prepare for as well. The rising unemployment in our society is inherent with the fear of youth turning to a life of crime. Inducting the youth into the public sector will only increase annual reoccurring expenditure of the government and add to the high pension bill and shrink the fiscal space for subsidising Pakistan’s exports. The cost of business will increase rendering the private sector uncompetitive in the region.

Pakistan’s cities are turning into mega cities in terms of population but the civic amenities and food and water security are not correspondingly being made available. Our competing economies have taken the proverbial “bull by its horn“ and have embarked on a developmental trajectory as visible in the sudden change in heart of North Korea which realised that trade and not conflict was in their interest and both Koreas have initiated the process of dialogue to spur investment and economic growth.

It is said that what the use of fingerprints was to the 19th century, and DNA analysis in the 20th century, financial information and forensic accounting have come to be two of today’s essential, investigative and intelligence tools available.

In Pakistan, whether to conform to revenue authorities or regulators reporting requirements, the corporate sector is bogged down and compelled to spend substantially to acquire or upgrade software, increasing the cost of doing business. The wider and complex revenue authorities and regulatory authorities reporting requirements become the funding, and scope accompanied with a parallel internal mechanism for protecting the companies’ revenues from pilferage or leakages needs standardisation.

Focus needs shifting from mere compliance approach to CG practices in tandem with transparent financial reporting systems. Law enforcement agencies in Pakistan lack the expertise and capacity to timely detect and unravel frauds. Hence we need to introduce principles of forensic accounting in the curricula of universities and relevant regulations for auditors to certify and train forensic auditors who may prevent as well as highlight corporate frauds rather than indulging in empty rhetoric of little evidentiary value. The present corporate structure in Pakistan requires an overhaul if family-led businesses aspire to expand into the larger arena, or they should remain content in reaping profits in the short term and withering away after the next generation.

The writer has done his Bachelor of Science in Business and Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is involved in research in the areas of finance, energy and sustainable development. Nadir Mumtaz reviewed the article

Published in Daily Times, May 4^th 2018.