The government has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the Rs 7,800-crore accounting fraud in Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha today, Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said while the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) under his ministry had been given three-months to wrap up its probe into the Satyam scam, no time-frame has been set for the CBI. "Yesterday, the government ordered a CBI investigation into the whole issue," he said.
There are currently four agencies -- the SFIO, market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Andhra Pradesh Police -- that are investigating into the fraud.
Gupta did not comment on whether an investigation would be launched into accounts of the companies audited by Price Waterhouse -- the statutory auditors for Satyam. "Sebi has ordered a peer audit review of companies listed on Sensex and Nifty. Once the peer review is over, government will decide what to do," he said.
Gupta said the RBI had, in October 2004, had issued advisory to banks not to engage Price Waterhouse for audits after unearthing of accounting deficiencies in Global Trust Bank (GBT), whose account it was auditing.
"The case of Satyam is a very unfortunate... (but) this is only an aberration," said Gupta and added that the government is concerned about 53,000 employees of Satyam.
The scam-tainted company is also likely to finalise a buyer by the end of this month, according to senior Satyam board member Deepak Parekh. Speaking to mediapersons here today, he added there would not be any further senior-level resignations in the company. He was referring to reports that more top-level resignations would follow on the back of two senior vice-presidents, Anil Kumar and Subu D Subramaniam, putting in their papers in the past few days. "They were not sacked. It was worked out in an amicable way," a Satyam spokesperson told this paper earlier in the day.
In a related development, the sixth additional chief metropolitan court today reserved the orders on Sebi's request to question former chief financial officer of Satyam Computer Srinivas Vadlamani and Price Waterhouse auditors to tomorrow. The court, yesterday, had reserved the orders on a plea filed by the Income-Tax department seeking its permission to question Ramalinga Raju for three days to February 18. Also, the orders on the bail pleas of Raju brothers and former chief financial officer will be given tomorrow.
