Over the past years corruption in India has been exacerbating; scams involving ridiculously high monetary values have been regularly catching the headlines. One such example is the infamous Satyam scam: B Ramalinga Raju, the Chairman of Satyam Computers Services Ltd, along with his other 13 representatives deceived their shareholders and investors by releasing manipulated account details and made a illegal profit of Rs. 2000 crore (approx. USD 3.2 billion).

The scam was in practice for 9 years and was not caught by SEBI until 2009. This incident brings up a lot of question on how such a notorious act was possible? Should there be stricter controls? Do firms have the freedom to manipulate details? If yes, then to what is this allowable extent?

As a business and individual, monetary numbers are always played with for many reasons like evading taxes, higher profits, attracting investors etc. and this practice has become a way of life and often acceptable to a certain extent. However, I feel this is a very difficult obstacle in an ethical business environment. Scandals relating accounts manipulation are common but why do they occur? But the real concern is even after having many well-established standardised formats and mediums of transparency why do such events take place?

In one of my previous blogs I referred to an article asking firms adapt measures of transparency in order to promote sustainability. Building on that I realize the many benefits this act can have in order to evade similar swindles.

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