Fraud office gets mandate, but not people

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New Delhi: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has received the official mandate to begin work into the financial fraud committed by B Ramalinga Raju, former chairman & CEO of Satyam Computer Services. But the office, under the ministry of corporate affairs, is handicapped by a shortage of staff. A third of the posts, 32 of the 100-staff body, are lying vacant. The posts are in critical divisions like capital markets and financial transactions.

Set up in October 2003, SFIO, with offices in Delhi and Mumbai, is headed by director of the rank of joint secretary and a team of additional directors who are experts in various fields such as taxation, banking, accounting, capital markets, company law and information technology.

Although the SFIO hopes to wrap up investigations within a year, it could take much longer as it is saddled with a large number of other cases and is faced with a staff crunch. The cases with the office include those of Daewoo Motors, Morepen Laboratories and Ispat Industries.

To fill up the vacancies SFIO has invited applications in October and November 2008. Two of the vacant posts are for additional directors in charge of financial transactions—indicating the section is headless now—and another for an additional director for capital markets. Other vacancies include assistant directors for capital markets, banking, forensic audit and corporate law as well as prosecutors and personal assistants.

While SFIO is hopeful of having all appointments in place by March and does not feel this staff crunch would affect its investigations, a former official in the ministry of corporate affairs said it would definitely impact the pace.

But kicking off its investigations into the Satyam case, SFIO is expected to soon appoint a team to visit Hyderabad. “This is only the preparatory stage. We will now appoint a team to go to Hyderabad that will collect documents from the company office, after which officials from Satyam will be summoned to record their statements,” an official source said.

At a later date, it may also seek help from the income tax department or other wings of the government, he added.