CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FAILURES IN CORPORATE SCANDAL: THE CASE OF ALPHA CREDIT CARD COMPANY

Abstract

Alpha Credit Card Company Limited (hereafter ACCCL) which was engaged in unauthorized fund collecting from the Sri Lankan public, collapsed in year 2008. Analysis of ACCCL’s multiple sources of archival data found reason being inefficiency of ACCCL’s corporate governance system. Three research questions describe the field “corporate governance structure of ACCCL” were addressed. Thereafter analysed how prevailed governance failures contributed to collapse of ACCCL. Aim of this paper is to explain why the company failed, and will discuss question “governance structure prevailed at ACCCL?” and objective “salient features of governance structure prevailed at ACCCL. Access to corporate data is the key to case study success (Starkey, 1997). Prevailed scandalous environment embedded within the company resulted ACCCL ranked among the largest frauds committed in South Asia. This setup prevailed grounds for my analytical study as unique field with available resources to analyse the case. Despite difficulty to access data directly from company, multiple sources of data were used. Findings were internal, external corporate governance failures where both information demand and supply side actors, failed to monitor ACCCL’s activities.

Keywords: Case Study, ACCCL, Corporate Governance failures, Scandal.

For full Paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk