Govt directors job done in Satyam; time to check out

The government today said the directors it nominated to run scam-hit Satyam Computer are ready to check out after what it called a job well done.

"Our job is done. I think they can now be phased out... we can take credit for what we have done and we will give credit to them for what they have done," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed told PTI when asked if the directors would be recalled now.

Satyam posted robust earnings for the October-December quarter and had a profit of Rs 56 crore in the January- February period.

"It is for the board to decide (on when to send the directors back)," Khursheed said.

Satyam Computer, which was till late last year ranked India's fourth-largest software exporter, began showing signs of trouble in December 2008 when the company made a desperate but failed attempt to acquire two non-IT firms promoted by the kin of its founder Ramalinga Raju.

Less than a month later, Raju wrote to the Satyam board saying he had been cooking the books for many years, falsified profits and created fictitious assets.

"It is like riding a tiger and not knowing how to get off without being eaten," wrote Raju, now in jail awaiting trial.

The government lost no time in nominating IT wizard Kiran Karnik, banker Deepak Parekh and former regulator C Achuthan to take the reins of the company, on which the lives of nearly 50,000 employees dependend then.