Directors refresh on duties
REPRESENTATIVES of board and management of various companies in Suva were part of a Governance and The Board workshop in Suva yesterday, organised by retired PricewaterhouseCoopers managing partner Jenny Seeto and former Westpac Fiji chief manager David Evans.
“There are very senior board directors who have good experience,” Ms Seeto said.
“There’s also new board directors who have joined the course and management as well.
“It’s very important to have all groups — board directors and management in a course like this because we talk about expectations, we talk about directors’ duties, responsibilities, what are the rights of directors, conflicts of interest and how we manage conflicts.
“Fiji is such a small country, everyone knows each other, people have businesses, so we’ve had a really robust discussion about managing conflicts of interest.”
She stressed the importance of the role of directors in an organisation.
“Their role is to set what we call the strategy, chart the path of the organisation. It’s really important, especially when we’re looking at state-owned-enterprises, statutory companies for example and especially in this current climate where we’ve got new people who have been appointed on boards.
“Some boards have undergone induction courses, not everyone has undergone directors’ training, and that’s really important, and I believe the Government is looking at directors’ training as well so our course is part of that piece of whole overall training.
“There are other courses that David and I will deliver later. We’re actually writing up a risk and strategy course and a finance course as well.”
The workshop ends today.