Satyam's accounts cleaning to take 6 months

The 'cleaning up' or restating of scam-tainted Satyam's accounts is expected to take at least six months as the newly-appointed auditing firms will have to scrutinise the company's fudged numbers back to 2002, a top source said.

"Efforts to restate the accounts are progressing rapidly. The board expects this task to take at least six months. The restated accounts can be expected to be ready earliest by July," the source said.

A 30-member team from Chennai-based Brahmaiah & Company, appointed as the internal auditor, is going through the fraud-hit IT major's accounts in Hyderabad.

Besides, two foreign auditing firms, KPMG and Deloitte, have also been mandated by the government-appointed Satyam board to scrutinise the IT firm's books of accounts.

The auditors have been asked to work backwards, 2008-09 to 2002, to facilitate a speedy declaration of Q3 results, the source said.

"The board wants to declare the company's Q3FY09 results as quickly as possible and hence the move," the source said.