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Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Against the background of the Wirecard scandal, a committee of experts is proposing more precise specifications for auditing the annual financial statements of public companies.

The supervisory bodies should keep a closer eye on auditors.

The non-binding rules of conduct (German Public Corporate Governance Model Code) stipulate that the supervisory body of a public company should form its own judgment as to "whether the auditing company's assessments in the audit report should be followed."

“Competent and independent auditors are of particular importance due to their role and the composition of the supervisory bodies of public companies,” explained the scientific chairman of the committee, Ulf Papenfuß.

In the scandal surrounding the balance sheet fraud at the former Dax group Wirecard, the auditors from EY, among other things, are criticized because irregularities were not discovered earlier.

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The 22-person commission of experts, which includes the former Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries (SPD) and the Mayor of Mainz Michael Ebling, has revised the model code from 2020.

The non-binding proposals are intended to provide local authorities, federal states and the federal government with guidance.

A recommendation was made for a quota for women in the top floor of public companies.

Management bodies with more than two or three members should include at least one woman.

The committee is thus based on a draft law by the Federal Cabinet to increase the proportion of women in the boardrooms of large companies.

According to this, at least one woman must sit on the boards of listed companies with equal co-determination and with more than three members.

In companies with a majority shareholding by the federal government, there should generally be at least one woman on the management board if there are more than two members.

The expert commission also specified the remuneration rules for executives in public companies.

The comparison environment should be documented for the appropriateness of earnings.

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"Many cities and federal states have announced that they want to introduce a code for their companies," reported Papenfuß.

The topic should be on the agenda when dealing with the corona pandemic.

“As a commission of experts, we would like the model code to be used specifically for comparisons in the joint development of regulations on site,” said the professor at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen.

"We have observed that many rules have not yet been included in existing codes that would actually be important for the goals formulated by politicians."

But there are also a number of very good examples.

According to this, there are around 18,500 public companies nationwide, around 16,000 of them at the municipal level.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210115-99-36482 / 2

German public corporate governance model code