BDO Partners to power SLIM’s Effie, Brand Excellence and DIGIS 2.0 awards as Official Audit Partner

One of Sri Lanka’s leading professional service firms, BDO Partners and Sri Lanka’s apex body for marketers, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), joined hands for the second consecutive year to power SLIM’s Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2020, Brand Excellence 2020 and SLIM DIGIS 2.0 as the official Audit Partner.

The agreement was signed recently between BDO Managing Partner Sujeewa Rajapakse, Deputy Managing Partner Ashane Jayasekara, SLIM President Roshan Fernando and General Manager SLIM Chinthaka Wanasinghe at a special ceremony in Colombo. 

As the official Audit Partner, BDO will supervise the judging sessions of Effie Awards Sri Lanka 2020, Brand Excellence Awards 2020 and SLIM DIGI’s 2.0 which are three crown jewels that are being awarded to outstanding marketing and branding personalities in the country to elevate them to the global arena.

Rajapakse said that BDO Partner’s growth is a testament to their commitment in driving transformation and delivering high-quality audits for their clients. BDO Partners has evolved with a comprehensive understanding of the business as it provides the stakeholders a greater assurance and value. It’s a landmark partnership with SLIM. He further added, “As the official Audit Partner, the Firm will have an enormous responsibility to ensure that the award ceremony will be the number one ceremony in terms of a completely independent and professional selection criteria of the best contestants as done last year.”

Jayasekara noted that BDO Partners ranks among Sri Lanka’s most respected professional firms with business advisory experts, providing clients with a diversity of services aimed at improving businesses through a broad range of value-added services. He added: “BDO Partners looks forward to collaborating with SLIM in future, partnering with our extensive portfolio of local and global brands to empower and assist our clients all over the country.” 

SLIM President Roshan Fernando stated that the Institute is delighted to have BDO Partners on board for the second consecutive year as the official audit partner. He further added, “It is our practice to always tie up with the pioneers in the respective industry for a better outcome. Hence, we have no hesitation to work with them for the second time. We expect to work continuously with BDO Partners in future as well.”

SLIM Vice President Thilanka Abeywardena said, “For the second time, this alliance is a result of the need we saw in engaging an expert to advise SLIM in our endeavour to enhance quality and credibility of the SLIM national projects. SLIM’s national projects represent our efforts to encourage and reward best practices across key pillars of marketing namely; Sales, advertising, branding, digital marketing and research. Hence, I am certain of the benefits of this partnership not only to SLIM but also to the marketing fraternity as a whole and would like to extend sincere gratitude to the management of BDO partners for partnering with us.”

BDO Partners, which is a member of BDO International LLP is known to provide a range of services from assurance, tax, advisory, risk advisory, corporate secretarial, mergers and acquisition, as well as business services and outsourcing to a multitude of local and international clients.

SLIM is the national body for marketing in Sri Lanka and has been promoting excellence and elevating the status of marketing since 1970. It is a member of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), the Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA) and the Federation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL). Internationally it is affiliated to the Asian Marketing Federation (AMF) as the member of its board of management and the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), Ireland. 

SLIM organises national level events such as NASCO, Brand Excellence, People’s Awards, SLIM DIGIS and Effie Awards. SLIM also has received ISO 9001:2015 certification in recognition of its superior quality management system and ISO 29990:2010 for Learning Service Provider (LSP), providing non-formal education and training services.