Comment on the following referring to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013: Ritesh was appointed as a Director, Finance of a listed company. During his meeting with the statutory auditor, he represented that since C

Section 134(5) of the Companies Act, 2013 specifically provides that the Director's Responsibility Statement shall set out the following affirmations: in the preparation of the annual accounts, the applicable accounting standards had been followed along with proper explanation relating to material departures; the directors had selected such accounting policies and applied them consistently and made judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent so as to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company at the end of the financial year and of the profit and loss of the company for that period; the directors had taken proper and sufficient care of the maintenance of adequate accounting records in accordance with the provisions of this Act for safeguarding the assets of the company and for preventing and detecting fraud and other irregularities; the directors had prepared the annual accounts on a going concern basis; the directors, in the case of a listed company, had laid down internal financial controls to be followed by the company and that such internal financial controls are adequate and were operating effectively; and the directors had devised proper systems to ensure compliance with the provisions of all applicable laws and that such systems were adequate and operating effectively. In light of above, it is the responsibility of the Board of directors to prepare proper financial statement and maintain proper books of account in compliance with the statutory requirement. The Board cannot absolve from its responsibility on the ground that a Chartered Accountant has been appointed as CFO. Therefore, Mr. Ritesh's representation to the statutory auditor is incorrect.