Apropos the editorial Sting in the tail (May 16), deficiencies in governance arise from the fact that the control mechanism put in place to detect aberrations simply do not work in India. For example, most banks have their major deposit functions subject to concurrent audit (mostly by external auditors). Yet, violations abound and the auditors are barely held responsible for acts of omission and commission. Similarly, the board and the statutory auditors are never held accountable for lapses that abound in bank balance sheets. Given the fact that certain segments of the economy (mostly trade, specifically commodities and real estate) are either entirely based on cash or have significant cash component, it is a surprise that Cobrapost came as a surprise to anybody. Its obvious that such cash look for opportunities to come into the formal banking channels. May be the sheer brazeness of the transactions took the public by surprise. Supervisors are a small cog in a fairly large governance apparatus, and all the elements ought to be held accountable.
Indranil Chakraborty Bangalore
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