This Article is From Apr 09, 2009

Satyam an unfortunate case: P C Gupta

New Delhi: Premier investigating agency CBI has been ordered to probe the accounting fraud in Satyam Computer, whose founder Ramalinga Raju had disclosed fraud in books over 40 days ago, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, 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 CBI.

",Yesterday, the government ordered CBI investigation into the whole issue,", he said.

Gupta evaded replying to demands for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into all aspects of the Satyam scam, including allegations of political patronage to its disgraced founder B Ramalinga Raju.

He also did not say if investigation would be launched into accounts of the companies audited by PriceWaterhouse, the statutory auditors for Satyam.

",The SEBI has ordered peer audit review of companies listed on Sensex and Nifty. Once peer review is over, government will decide what to do,", he said.

Gupta said RBI had in October 2004 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.
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