the functions and responsibilities will not be effective if done in isolation without consulting the other stakeholders. in particular, the regulators and external auditors should closely coordinate their roles and responsibilities. the regulator as well as the external auditor starts their examinations and audits with the financial reporting aspects of companies. the external auditor is basically looking at the financial performance of the company and its compliance with the laws, observance of auditing and accounting standards and rules and regulations set out by the regulator. they also look into aspects such as health of the balance sheet, status of the profit & loss account and the ability of the company to operate as a going concern. the regulator, on the other hand, has to make sure that not only companies adhere to provisions in the governing laws and comply with rules and regulations but also ensure that finance and leasing companies have put in place necessary processes and procedures to mitigate risks, be it credit, liquidity, market or systemic. the regulator makes recommendations to initiate action, if such risk mitigation methods are not considered adequate. the regulator is conscious of not only the viability of the company to operate as a going concern, but also its ability to pay its liabilities to creditors and depositors. sometimes, there is an over - lapping of the two roles of the regulator and external auditor, but with closer dialogue, coordination and cooperation, the duplication of work can be avoided. the regulator should have quarterly / monthly dialogue with the companies and external auditors which is a healthy practice than working on an isolated basis. it is also important to understand financial reporting formats and the auditing standards specified by the external auditors and ensure that there are no conflicting instructions issued by the regulator or the external auditor. this task can also be facilitated through continuous dialogue between the relevant parties and in forums like this, where such issues can be raised and resolved. neither the regulator nor the external auditor can ensure that the companies are acting in a transparent and an accountable manner. the boards of directors and the senior management should be accountable to relevant stakeholders. this is why it is necessary to adopt corporate governance practices both at the board level and throughout the operations of the institution. there is an increasing trend of making some of the corporate governance practices mandatory either through rules and regulations issued by the regulator or by separate mandatory codes. from 2009 onwards, all finance and leasing companies will have to observe mandatory governance principles. therefore, contribution by the boards of directors and the senior management of finance and leasing companies is

enables a company to purchase its own shares provided an auditor opines that the consideration given is a fair value ( i. e. market value ). if a company is to alter the articles to reflect a removal or an addition of business activity or to carry out a major transaction or an amalgamation, minority shareholders could request the company to purchase their shares. auditor has to make a fair judgment on this, which is introduced as a facility to minority shareholders. unlike in the previous companies act, the external auditor is given a specific responsibility in making the judgment. there may be several other clauses in the new companies act which casts additional responsibility on the external auditor. there are experts to discuss these topics in this forum and let me not pre - empt them. i hope the deliberations today will bring such issues into light and that there will be a meaningful discussion. i wish the seminar a success.