Supervision of the Auditors Statutory Board during COVID-19 emergency
The Auditors Statutory Board must continue to carry out its function of monitoring according to the Law and to carry out the usual periodic checks. It must also verified if the requirements imposed by the various Prime Ministerial Decree are compliant.
The current context in which the control bodies are operating is unusual: the restrictions on travel and the impossibility of going to the administrative offices of companies and the succession of numerous Prime Ministerial Decree calling for verification of the application of the restrictions imposed, makes it very hard to get.
The task of the Auditors Statutory Board is to verify that the company has complied with the provisions of the Prime Ministerial Decree, related to essential production activities for which closure has not been planned. After verifying that the company actually belongs to the list of essential services, the Auditors Statutory Board must verify, with the Board of Directors, the assurances related to the compliance with the safety “protocol” in the workplace: smart working where possible, the definition of criteria for joining the company, hygiene procedures, social distancing, management of common areas and organization of shifts.
The Board of Directors is required to provide information on the measures taken at a specific meeting or at the Auditors’s Statutory Board meeting.
In the event that the company’s activities are not among those defined as essential, the Auditors Statutory Board has the duty to verify that the Board of Directors has complied with the suspension of activities and that it has closed offices and sales outlets and, after in the end, has finally planned the sanitization activities.
A final crucial aspect for the Auditors Statutory Board is the monitoring of the business perspective. It is not clear the extent and duration of the economic repercussions caused by the pandemic emergency. For this reason, the company’s going concerned is being put to the test and is required to the Board of Directors to update future forecasts on the basis of the ongoing evolution of the general context.
Alessandro Filippo Consonni