15 Jan :Following is the text of the statement made by Shri Prem Chand Gupta, Minister of Corporate Affairs, at the Press Conference held here this evening:“You are aware that the new Board of Satyam consisting of the three eminent persons nominated by the Govt. namely Mr. Kiran Karnik, Dr. Deepak Parekh and Mr. C. Achutan, held its first meeting at Hyderabad on 12.01.2009. They have started working and taking various steps as required in the company.
You are also aware that the investigation of Satyam has been entrusted to SFIO and the officers of SFIO have already started their job. They have been asked to submit their report within 3 months.
Simultaneously, inspection under section 209A of the companies Act is on in 8 companies associated with Satyam Group including Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra. In my last interaction with you, I had indicated that the Board of Satyam is going to be further strengthened soon. Considering various needs of the company at the moment, the Government has decided to nominate the following three persons of eminence as directors of Satyam, in addition to the three directors already nominated:
• Sh. Tarun Das who is Chief Mentor of CII and a recipient of Padam Bhushan
• Sh. T. N. Manoharan who is an eminent Chartered Accountant, and served as President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India during 2006-07
• Sh. Suryakant Balkrishna Mainak of LIC who has rich experience in finance, risk management, investment banking and secondary market operations.
I may inform you that the Board of Satyam has already engaged the services of two reputed Audit firms namely Deloitte & KPMG to look into the accounts of Satyam. They have already started their work. However, it would take a few weeks before they can come out with any finding.
I have already informed you that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the Auditors of Satyam as per the laid down procedure.
The first impression from the Govt. nominated Directors about the company is that its operations are sound and by and large major customers are willing to remain with the company.
I am confident that the NASSCOM and major companies in IT Sector in the country would support the efforts of the present management of Satyam in sailing through the present crisis.”
