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Corporate image shouldn’t suffer: Manmohan

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday held discussions with his senior Cabinet colleagues on exploring the ways and means of salvaging the fraud-ridden Satyam Computer Services. He reviewed the steps being taken to bring the guilty to book in the Rs. 7,100-crore fudging of accounts of the IT major.

Apart from Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta, who briefed Dr. Singh on the Satyam developments, the meeting was attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Briefing the media, Mr. Gupta said: “We are looking at different possibilities …We apprised the Prime Minister and other Ministers of the situation and what action has been taken, what is being done, and what will be done.”

The top-level political deliberations came a day after the three-member board appointed by the Centre took charge of Satyam to take stock of the extent of affliction and chart the future course of action.

At its maiden briefing at Hyderabad on Monday, the board, comprising HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, the former Nasscom president, Kiran Karnik, and the former SEBI member, C. Achutan, clearly indicated that the immediate priority was to attend to the liquidity crunch that was afflicting the company’s ongoing business and to restore the confidence of its overseas clients and 53,000 employees.

Mr. Kamal Nath had also indicated that the government was open to considering a financial package to protect the interests of the employees and other stakeholders.

According to sources, the issue of cash crunch did figure during the review meeting convened by Dr. Singh. While all options are under consideration, it is, however, not clear whether the government will announce an outright “bailout” package or direct a consortium of public sector banks to make available the required funds in tranches as working capital.

The Prime Minister’s objective, the sources said, was not only to salvage the beleaguered company but also ensure that the global image of India Inc., particularly the IT sector, was not tarnished.

While the government is yet to appoint more directors, Dr. Singh has already directed Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to “coordinate” the steps being taken by various government agencies and other regulators on the Satyam issue.

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