Govt open to strategic stake sale of Maytas

Says the board has to take a call on inviting investor

He added “... what has happened in the past is what we are examining ... so any proposal that we are making is based on the present account that is available to us.”

When contacted, Maytas Infra said they have not approached MCA for any kind of strategic sale. “Right now, our focus is to execute the projects on hand,” the company said.

The ministry has received the final inspection report of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) which found misappropriation of accounts, siphoning of funds and unaccounted money in Maytas Infra. Khurshid said, “We are in touch with government directors ... the report will be put up to me in a week.”

Onus for fraud
However, on superseding Maytas Board completely, Khurshid said that it would be premature to comment on this without going through the RoC report.

Meanwhile, asserting that big accounting firms should take responsibility for accounting frauds rather than passing the blame on individuals, the Centre, on Friday, said it may change the law relating to accountability of these firms, if the need arises.

“This is a rational concern that big firms just put the load entirely on one or two individuals who may be directly responsible (for the fraud) but big firms also must take the responsibility... at present it is difficult to hold firms responsible but if need arises we will change the law,” Khurshid said, briefing reporters at AIMA conference.

As regards the action to be taken against now-in-jail auditors of Satyam S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, he said “We have some idea prima facie what needs to be done but we will take view of all stakeholders.”