CA's Finance Chief Robert Davis to Leave (AP)

ISLANDIA, N.Y. - CA Inc., a business management software company trying to steady itself after an accounting scandal, said Monday that its chief financial officer is stepping down after 15 months on the job. Its shares sank 3.5 percent in morning trading.

Robert Davis, 47, will "leave the company under mutual agreement," the company said in a statement. CA spokesman Dan Kaferle said he could not elaborate on why Davis is leaving.

CA, formerly known as Computer Associates, named Robert Cirabisi as interim finance chief. Cirabisi, 42, serves as the company's corporate controller and senior vice president and has been with CA since 2000.

Davis will stay at CA for a "short period of time" to assist in the transition. He had joined the company from Dell Inc., where he worked for eight years and served as vice president of corporate finance and chief accounting officer.

Davis' departure comes as CA is still recovering from an accounting scandal that saw the company pay shareholders $225 million in 2004 in a settlement that deferred criminal prosecution. An outside monitor is tracking its financial reporting, and the company is reviewing past financial filings. CA would face no prosecution if it follows terms of the deferral agreement for 18 months.

Last month, ex-CA CEO Sanjay Kumar pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges. Six other former executives have also pleaded guilty.

"When we began the task of transforming CA, we knew that we would encounter many challenges and understood that in an undertaking of this scale and scope, changes were to be expected," CA's president and chief executive, John Swainson, said in Monday's statement. "Eighteen months into the process, it is clear that although we still have a way to go, we have made progress."

CA shares fell 86 cents to $23.57 in morning trading on the after sinking to a new 52-week low of $23.03 earlier in the session.

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