People's Democracy

DEMANDS A NATIONAL AUDIT BOARD

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) reiterates that the Satyam Computer Services Ltd. fraud has once again exposed the hollowness of the much-hyped corporate governance in a free market economy. CITU demands that government should take punitive action immediately against the corporate scam-star, the board of directors, the so-called independent directors, and the auditors, who are responsible for the trauma, being faced by 53,000 workers and a huge number of small retail investors.

CITU points out that the Satyam fraud is not an isolated case in an inadequate regulatory mechanism but highlights the collusive mismanagement of public fund by the nexus of private corporates, auditors and independent directors backed by the government. M/s Price Water House & Cooper (PWC), the auditor of Satyam was also the auditor of Global Trust Bank, which collapsed in 2004 and then bailed out by a PSU bank. CITU strongly apprehends than an independent scrutiny of the balance sheets of the companies which are being audited by M/s PWC and other trans-national audit firms, would bring out skeletons in the cup board of corporate misgovernance of similar fraudulent nature. Keeping in view PWC's client list of 50 corporate bigwigs in India, including number of top IT companies, GMR, LANCO, United Breweries (UB), Reliance Power, Simplex, Max India etc., CITU demands that the monopoly of PWC and other trans-national auditors should be immediately curbed and PWC be blacklisted.

Along with other corrective as well as preventive regulatory measures to protect the interest of millions of workers, employees, retail investors and public money, CITU demands that the government should take immediate steps to constitute a National Audit Board to regulate and scan the audit of the listed private companies. The audit board should have similar power and duties that the C&AG have for the audits of PSUs.