Rising workload: Govt plans to treble SFIO staff strength in 3-4 months

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is planning to treble the strength of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in the next three to four months to build the capacity for rising number of cases.

A senior official told Business Standard that SFIO was expected to investigate 70-80 more cases on top of its current workload.

In 2016-17, the SFIO completed investigation in 87 cases and since 2003-04 it has finished probe in 312 cases. The white collar crime agency would add to its work force of forensic auditors, banking specialists, officials for corporate law, capital markets, among others. “The SFIO does not have enough investigation teams and its work will increase manifold… getting qualified people will be crucial,” the official added. However, the government is still to decide where the extra manpower will come from.

With the insolvency and bankruptcy code kicking in, more cases have come under the scanner of SFIO, which derives its powers from the Companies Act. There are over 130 sanctioned posts for the investigation agency.

“The government is looking into a lot of the stressed assets, which have come under the IBC to find where crores rupees of loan amount went and how it was spent to have ended up as non-performing asset,” a person in the know said.

The time taken in the probe is higher than in the previous years. For instance, it took almost 51 months for a case registered in 2014-15, and 36 months in 2015-16. There has been successful prosecution of the guilty in 42 per cent of the cases.

The SFIO has also started offering internships since 2017 to MBA students and law students in fourth or fifth year of their degree. The SFIO is investigating high-profile cases such as those concerning Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who are alleged to have defrauded Punjab National Bank.

Meanwhile, MCA has also ramped up manpower in the National Company Law Tribunals, including 12 judicial and 18 technical members, across various benches such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Cuttack and Guwahati, among others.

The SFIO has also been given more teeth with powers to arrest. The government data suggests that over the four years from 2014-15 to January 31, 2018, 73 cases of investigation of 447 companies were assigned to the SFIO.

The SFIO was set up in January 2003 on the recommendations of the Naresh Chandra Committee on corporate governance.