Hand-picked Noble committee not independent

THE recent announcement by the Noble Group that it has established an independent committee to review its accounting practises warrants a response.

This is a small step in the wrong direction. My problem with this supposedly independent committee is its extremely narrow and limited scope of only looking at mark-to-market (MTM) valuations and that only a Noble vetted summary will be released by the board committee. This hand-picked, insider board committee should not in anyway be considered "independent".

Noble is engaging in a PR exercise in which I, for one, have no confidence. As long as Richard Elman, the 75-year-old founder and executive chairman of Noble 20 per cent shareholder and member of the audit, nominating and compensation committees, has a formal role in Noble, there can be no possibility of a truly independent assessment of Noble's accounting.