Prosecution need not wait for ED report in Satyam case: Govt

Prosecution can prove culpability of Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju and those allegedly involved in the multi-crore accounting fraud on grounds already established and need not wait for reports from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and US' Internal Revenue Service, Union Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said today.

The government is awaiting reports from the ED and the US agency before deciding whether or not accounts of the Ramalinga Raju family-promoted Maytas firms need restating.

"The Enforcement Directorate and the IRS are investigating aspects about the money having been moved abroad. We don't have a final report. But the prosecution doesn't have to wait for the report because the culpability can be proved on the grounds already established," Khurshid told reporters here.

The accounts of scam-hit IT firm Satyam Computer Services, now Mahindra Satyam, are in the process of being restated after Raju, its founder-chairman, last January admitted to fudging accounts of nearly Rs 8,000 crore for years.

The IRS is looking into the matter as Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam's ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) are listed in the New York Stock Exchange.

"The SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office) probe into Satyam is over. We are waiting for courts in Andhra Pradesh to move forward," Khurshid said. The government wants greater disclosures and shareholder democracy in the way companies function.

The ministry is expected to enact the new Companies Bill, which will enforce stricter corporate governance norms and fix more responsibility on independent directors.

"I don't think that one should overreact with what happened with Satyam. Much of what has happened in Satyam was already anticipated in the changes that have been introduced in the Bill," Khurshid said.

The minister said the Bill will give SFIO more powers and improve the surveillance and vigilance system by putting in an early warning system "so patterns of default that have in the past led to a serious issues like that can be picked up very early by the analytical tools which we have put in".