From the editor

When a large-scale robbery takes place, the first reaction of the public is not of cursing the robber, but that of blaming the police. How did the police not have a whiff of the theft? Skepticism often leads to suspicion-suspicion of collusion. In the world of financial fraud, the auditors' role is similar to that of the police. No wonder then that every case of financial fraud ends up in fingerpointing at the auditing profession. Complicating matters is the fact that auditors work under a thick veil of secrecy-partly because confidentiality is inherent to the profession and partly because of the botched regulatory process in India, which discourages transparency. Yet, as the Satyam episode reminds us, a sound system of auditing is as critical for corporate India as effective policing is for the society at large. The consequences of bad auditing are borne by everybody, from employees to shareholders.

That's why Business Today decided to devote its cover story on understanding how auditors in India really work; what their mandate is; and whether they can be expected to detect frauds-especially when it is perpetrated by the top management. Our reporting was an exercise in education and revelation, and we share it all. No doubt, the expectations from auditors have to be lowered. At the same time, the government has to put in place an independent regulatory body (at present, auditors regulate themselves) and auditors, especially the Big 4, have to voluntarily disclose much more about their business than they currently do. Secrecy is the root of suspicion-however unfair it may be.

We also revisit the Satyam saga, this time to understand what it takes to run a company whose promoter is in jail for committing the biggest fraud in corporate history, whose entire board has been fired, where it is difficult to know which person or paper to trust, where the new management is only around temporarily and where some of the biggest names in global business are the company's clients.Read this extraordinary account from Satyam insiders.

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