Ramalinga Raju's agenda for meetings: Cook the books

8 Feb 2009,

HYDERABAD: Although B Ramalinga Raju has sought to take full responsibility for cooking Satyam accounts, it is 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 though 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 Srinivasa Vadlamani, the chief financial officer, would officiate. It is not known whether the PW auditors told police the identity of other company managers who were regular at these meets. But the auditors said that 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 accepted written statements by the company management. The statement, in the form of a letter was usually signed by Rama Raju or Vadlamani.

They also told the Crime Investigation Department (CID) sleuths that they 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 told CID sleuths.

The investigating agency arrested Srinivas and Gopalakrishnan on January 23 on the charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy after the falsification of accounts of Satyam Computer Services Ltd came to light. The CID took them into custody a few days ago.

The CID posed over 100 questions including whether they were aware of the falsication of accounts, how long the fudging of accounts happening, the role of former chairman, managing director, chief financial officer, and whether the company offered them bribes to certify accounts and if Ramalinga Raju forced them to sign on audit reports and why the remuneration of PWC had shot up in the last few years.