Spl meetings held to cook Satyam books

Hyderabad:

Although B Ram a l i n g a Raju has sought to take full responsibility for cooking Satyam’s accounts, it’s now clear that ‘Operation Fudging’ at the company was a complex exercise and was meticulously planned and executed with precision. There were scores of meetings with dozens of people to falsify the accounts of the company that was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Talluri Srinivas and S Gopalakrishnan, the two Price Waterhouse auditors arrested in the scam, have told cops that the agenda used to be clear in the meetings although the word fudging was not used. Everyone present was aware of the motive of the meetings, which was to falsify the accounts, they said during their interrogation over the last week.

The meetings were usually chaired by Ramalinga Raju himself, but in his absence Rama Raju, his brother, or Srinivas Vadlamani, the chief financial officer, would officiate. It’s not known whether the PW auditors have revealed to the police the identity of the other company managers who were regulars at these meets. But the auditors said the internal audit department of Satyam with qualified chartered accountants was fully aware of the goings on. The fudging of accounts had been on for the last six years, the auditors revealed.

The two external auditors are also believed to have confessed that it was because of this environment that instead of independently verifying Satyam’s balance with the banks they had accepted written statements by the company management.


Never grilled Raju: Auditors

Hyderabad: Talluri Srinivas and S Gopalakrishnan, the two Price Waterhouse auditors arrested in the Satyam scam, have told interrogators that the account statements issued by the IT major to them would be in the form of letter and usually signed by Rama Raju or CFO Srinivas Vadlamani. They also told CID sleuths that they had approved the accounts of Satyam because of Ramalinga Raju’s ‘towering presence’ and did so without ever questioning him. “We did not dare raise questions when the client was a reputed company. Moreover, Ramalinga Raju himself took personal interest in the accounts,’’ one of the auditors said.

The agency arrested Srinivas and Gopalakrishnan on January 23 on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy. It posed 100 queries, including whether they were aware of the falsification of accounts, how long the fudging of accounts had been happening, the role of the ex-chairman, MD and CFO whether the firm had offered them bribes to certify the accounts, if Raju had forced them to sign on audit reports and why the PWC remuneration had shot up in the last few years.

Source: The Sunday Times, TOI