WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR? Governance should be and should perceive to be an independent
process. It implies that the Board member of all organizations
should
be independent. Having Board Members who have an interest
within the organization or relationship which tends to
or appears to
compromise their independence can in effect compromise the
independence and overall accountability of the organization.
It
is also seen that even though organizations have a desire to
appoint an independent Board, in practice they find
it difficult to identify competent people who understand ‘Governance’ and
are available to provide oversight functions as independent
Board members.
CPA
provides training and capacity building on governance issues
as well as runs a four months online Certificate
programme, “NPO
Governance”. Through these processes, CPA identifies
competent and committed persons who are willing and available
to serve
as independent Board member. As a part of the due diligence
process, they are asked to provide necessary background
information and
sign a declaration signifying their intent to serve as
a Board member and to declare their conflict of interest.
To start with, we recommend that at least 40% of the Board
members of every organization should consist of Independent
Board members.
On the basis of the above, we have a pool of independent
Board members available to serve in your organization.
They are categorized
on the basis of regions. We encourage you to make use
of this pool which would bring in greater transparency,
credibility,
trust and
overall accountability for organizations in the voluntary
sector.
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