Director General of SLAASMB retires

Friday, 27 December 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) Director General Ajith S. Ratnayake retires on 24 January 2014, on reaching the retirement age of 60 years. He joined SLAASMB as its first Director General in 1998 and was instrumental in setting up its monitoring mechanism. Prior to joining SLAAMB, Ratnayake served in the private sector as CFO and CEO in Sri Lanka and abroad. In his last assignment in the private sector, he headed the setting up of the finance division of a joint venture Vodafone (UK) established in Fiji.

Corrections made by SLAASMB during the last 15 years amounted to a total of Rs. 58 billion. Corrections made to financial statements of listed companies are estimated to have affected their prices to an extent of 5% of the market capitalisation of the Colombo Stock Exchange. This year (2013) SLAASMB commenced issuing letters of comfort to companies whose financial statements did not have any issues in relation to compliance with standards. SLAASMB has issued letters of comfort to 275 companies during the year. The year also witnessed almost tripling of the technical staff capacity of SLAASMB. The new staff were provided a three-month full-time training program on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The additional capacity would enable SLAASMB to cover the review of the financial statements of almost all 1300 entities within its purview from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 and annually thereafter. SLAASMB is a member of the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators (IFIAR), and is currently a member of its Advisory Council. It is also a member of the consultative advisory groups of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA). It is a member of the International Valuations Standards Council (IVSC), and Ratnayake serves in its working group on valuation of commercial forests.