Drawn up by the Securities a& Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), the rules will be implemented in two stages, giving listed firms time to fall in line, SECs Director General, Channa de Silva said Friday.
These corporate governance standards relate to:
¢ the minimum number of non-executive and independent directors,
¢ the basis for determining 'independence',
¢ disclosures required to be made by listed companies in respect of its directorate,
¢ the minimal requirements to be met by listed companies in respect of the audit committee and the remuneration committee.
Under the first stage, which starts for the financial year beginning April 1, listed firms have to publish a table in their annual reports, declaring how far they can comply and explain deviations, if any, when adopting the corporate governance code.
In the second stage starting April 1, 2008, lis