NEW DELHI: Finance minister
Arun Jaitley on Tuesday hit out at auditors and supervisory agencies, asking them to "introspect" to avoid cases of financial wrongdoing, reported ANI.
"Also what were auditors doing? If both internal and external auditors have looked the other way and failed to detect, then I think CA professionals must introspect. Supervisory agencies also must introspect (about) what are the additional mechanisms they have to put in place," ANI quoted Jaitley as saying.
His comment comes in the backdrop of the Rs 11,300 crore
Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud+
, for which
Nirav Modi, his wife, brother, and business partner
Mehul Choksi were booked by the CBI on January 31.
The minister - without naming the PNB fraud - echoed remarks from both the BJP and Congress on how a scam of such magnitude remained hidden for as long as it did.
He also drew attention to the responsibility of the state to "chase those who cheat the banking system."
Read this story in Marathi
Jaitley also singled out bank managements for being unable to "utilize authority effectively and in the right manner."
"When authority is given to the managements, then you are expected to utilize authority effectively and in the right manner, and therefore, question for management is, if they were found lacking. On the face of it seems they were," he said.
It is expected that rating agencies will downgrade the rating of PNB, the country's second largest lender, over the scam.
The finance minister said an example should be made of those involved in scams as "these kinds of developments have a cost to the country and cost to the tax payers."
(With inputs from agencies)
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