'Steps need to be taken to prevent recurrence of Satyam episode'

The incident should be considered as an exception rather than a rule in the corporate sector frauds. Genuine companies should not suffer because of the fault of one firm, opined the Government nominated Director of Satyam Computer Services T N Manoharan.

Speaking on the ‘Lessons to be learnt from Satyam saga’ here on Saturday, Manoharan gave a graphic detail of the disaster that shocked the world on January 7and the subsequent takeover by Tech Mahindra, followed by a list of what he suppose are the lessons to be acquired from the fiasco.

The confessions by the promoters of ‘Satyam’ had created panic among investors and the employees were demoralised. The government thought out of the box to save the image of India as an investment friendly destination and appointed a 6 member board of directors to manage the affairs amicably when the company was in deep debt and there was not one paise in the bank.

The directors had a herculean task of solving one issue after the other at the same time stopping migration of customers to other firms, motivating the employees and raising up to Rs 500 crore to pay the employees in less than a month. They were successful in all that and neatly handed over the operations of ‘Satyam’ to Tech Mahindra in a few months, he explained.

Manoharan, also the former President of Institute of Chartered accountants of India (ICAI), informed that none of the 6 directors took any payment from the government for the project of saving ‘Satyam’ for which they slogged day and night for months.

Coming to the lessons to be learnt from the fiasco, he said that there are some basic moral lessons that all of us conveniently forget in the materialistic lifestyle and that the disaster that happened to ‘Satyam’ was due to the simple fact that its promoters preferred to ignore them.

Non executive Chairman of Karnataka Bank Ananthakrishna was the chief guest on the occasion. Chairman of ICAI Mangalore Branch Naveen N, Vice Chairman S Srinivas Kamath and others were present on the occasion.