Infosys' outsourcing unit CFO sacked; chief quits

Infosys on Tuesday announced the termination of the services of Abraham Mathews, chief financial officer (CFO) of its business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary, for non-compliance with the model code of conduct. The company also said Gautam Thakkar, chief executive officer of Infosys BPO, had quit, taking moral responsibility for the incident.

While Infosys did not elaborate on the said violation, sources close to the development said Mathews had failed to bring to the company's notice financial irregularities at one of its BPO centres. They added Mathews wasn't directly involved in the irregularities, but had failed to report the incident.

The company is learnt to have dismissed the executive directly involved with the irregularities, termed "immaterial".

"The board of Infosys BPO Ltd announced the separation of Abraham Mathews, its chief financial officer, from the services of the company for not complying with its code of conduct. The departure is in keeping with the company's goal of setting the highest standards of corporate governance and adhering to the letter and spirit of the code of conduct," the company said in a late night BSE filing.

Mathews had taken charge as CFO of Infosys BPO in December 2003.

The company has announced the appointment of Anup Uppadhayay, senior vice-president, global head of delivery for financial services and an Infosys veteran of 21 years, as Infosys BPO Ltd's new chief executive and managing director, and Deepak Bhalla, associate vice-president and head of its corporate accounting group, as the new CFO.

Bhalla had joined the company in 1998.

"BPO is of fundamental and strategic importance to our company. Our endeavour is to transform BPO with process innovation, automation and artificial intelligence to deliver exceptional efficiency and business value to our clients," Vishal Sikka, managing director and chief executive of Infosys, said.

For 2013-14, Infosys BPO had reported revenue of Rs 3,278 crore and a net profit of Rs 578 crore.

Infosys Technologies Limited