The West Indies Cricket Board is looking to tighten up its governance processes.
One of the key presentations to be made to the directors of the West Indies Cricket Board during their meeting this Friday in Jamaica will come from the Audit Risk & Compliance Committee.
This has become an important committee of the WICB, providing oversight to the checks and balances so vital to good governance of the regional governing body.
The ARCC is chaired by Don Wehby, a non-member director of the WICB and chief executive officer of Grace Kennedy Ltd.
The other members of the ARCC are: Clifford Reis, chairman and managing director of Banks DIH, Avondale Thomas, a chartered accountant. They are joined by WICB president Dave Cameron, chief executive officer Michael Muirhead and corporate secretary Verlyn Faustin.
“The ARCC wishes to thank the WICB for its assistance in helping us to achieve our objectives,” said Wehby. “There is still a lot to be done, but I am confident that we will achieve our objective of becoming world-class in governance, risk and financial practices.”
The ARCC is responsible for reviewing the WICB’s operations in a number of critical areas including financial reporting, internal control, internal and external audit and compliance.
“With oversight of the ARCC, the WICB for the first time completed its annual audit of accounts for the past financial year last December 31,” said Wehby.
“This period was within 90 days as is the usual international reporting standard for publicly-listed companies and companies with public interest, so we want to thank the independent members of the ARCC for its tireless work over the past two years.”
The committee is specifically tasked with reviewing the WICB’s internal control systems and making recommendations to the directors for enhancement of the processes under which the organization operates, identifying the top 10 risks facing the organization and undertaking the requisite mitigating actions forms a very important part of the committee’s functions.
Further the ARCC is responsible for assisting the Board of Directors in oversight of:
-Reliability and integrity of the accounting principles and practices, financial statements and other financial reporting
-Internal audit functions
-Risk management functions and processes
-Compliance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association, contracts and legal and regulatory requirements
Further as part of corporate best practice, the ARCC engaged the services of Price Waterhouse Coopers to identify and analyse the top risks faced by the WICB.
Another committee which looks into the governance structure of the WICB is that of the Corporate Governance & Nominations Committee chaired by Sir Dennis Byron, president of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
It will also lay its report before the Annual General Meeting the following day. This is the second such report tabled before the AGM.
“The WICB has taken deliberate initiatives to strengthen its governance structure under the current administration,” said Sir Dennis. “This follows on previous initiatives taken to enhance governance of the regional sporting organization.
“These initiatives are part of an ongoing process of moving towards global best practice and the Corporate Governance & Nominations Committee is specifically tasked with reviewing matters related to governance and making recommendations for improvement.”
