The Hindu Business Line : Office to detect white-collar frauds to be in place by April

THE Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a multi-disciplinary mechanism for early detection of white-collared frauds, is to be put in place by April.

``We are working on a tight schedule and the core team for SFIO will be in place in April," Mr Vinod Dhall, Secretary, Department of Company Affairs (DCA), said.

The Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, in his Budget speech while commenting on the Naresh Chandra Committee Report on Corporate Audit and Governance said that Corporate Governance is high on the Government's agenda.

``There will be a set of regulations that does not inhibit managerial initiative while instituting a mechanism for early detection of frauds and their prevention. For this purpose, a serious frauds office has already been set up,'' the Minister said.

``We are working on the procedural modalities and we are aware that we have been given a tight time schedule,'' he said.

The Finance Minister had announced during the monsoon session of Parliament (July 31, 2002) to set up a serious fraud office in the DCA.

Elaborating further on the set up of SFIO, the Secretary said, ``with a view to operationalising this office quickly, it has been decided to staff the office from DCA, income tax, nationalised banks and stock exchanges/SEBI on deputation basis. In this regard, the Government has constituted a committee with the DCA Secretary as Chairman, and Secretary Banking, Chairman SEBI, and Chairman Central Board of Director Taxes (CBDT), as members to assist DCA in identifying and selecting suitable officers along with supporting staff (investigators and personal assistants) from these Departments.

SFIO is to only take up investigations of frauds characterised by complexity and having inter-departmental and multi-disciplinary ramifications, substantial involvement of public interest in terms of monetary misappropriation or in terms of number of persons affected, and the possibility of investigations leading to, or contributing towards a clear improvement in systems, laws or procedures.

With the Finance Minister reiterating the importance of Corporate Governance, the DCA Secretary said the Department is processing the proposals of the Naresh Chandra Committee.

``Some of the recommendations will need legislative changes. Efforts will be on to introduce a Bill to amend Companies Act during the ongoing session,'' he said.

On whether the proposed Bill will also have the reminiscent of the1997 Companies Bill, which has been examined by the R D Joshi Committee constituted by the Department, the Secretary, ``we are yet to take a view on it.''

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Excise duty cuts not so cool

Bitter brew, says coffee industry

Shrimp sector sees succour

Budget brings hope for common man

Office to detect white-collar frauds to be in place by April

`Budget reflects India's confidence'

Chambers welcome `pragmatic' proposals

Industry bodies hail reform measures

Bank credit up Rs 7,307 cr

PSUs asked to recast high-cost debt — Debt plan for textile mills

CPCL oil jetty opened — Next round of NELP blocks soon

Bengal Govt files appeal against ERC tariff order

Task force on taxation issues on the cards

Package cheers powerloom

Maruti, HM cut prices

Cos may rush to pay out interim dividends — To skip distribution tax

Jaswant open to rethink on dividend taxation

Export growth in Jan dips