Infosys mentor Murthy bats for new Satyam board

BANGALORE - IT major Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy Thursday said the government-appointed board members of the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services were excellent, competent and had lots of experience.

‘Now that there is a government appointed board, we should stop second-guessing. The three board members are competent. They are excellent people, with lots of experience. They have managed many crises,’ Murthy told IANS on the sidelines of a technology conference here.

The new Satyam board, constituted by the central government Jan 9 comprises Deepak Parekh, chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC), Kiran Karnik, former president of software sector’s representative body Nasscom, and C. Achuthan, former member of market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The new board held its first meeting at the corporate headquarters of the IT bellwether in Hyderabad Jan 12.

Admitting that Satyam was in crisis between Jan 7, the day its disgraced founder-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju resigned, and Jan 9, when the new board was appointed, Murthy said it was not the case now as there was a new leadership to guide the beleaguered IT firm.

‘I would rather leave issues to them, as I do not want to second-guess. It is only fair to give them sufficient time to handle the crisis. Any query about Satyam should be addressed to the board members,’ Murthy said.

‘They are the right people to answer. They are the best people to judge. I would not like to comment on an issue in a company where there is a new set of leadership. They are the best people to judge.’

On the role of Satyam’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Murthy reiterated that SEBI chairman C.B. Bhave and the company board member Parekh were competent to comment on the auditors and it would not be fair to make any observation when investigations were on.

‘We should give confidence to the new leadership, employees and customers of Satyam by desisting from commenting on the company. They should be talking about the company, its business and future,’ he argued.

Murthy also declined to respond when asked whether Infosys would be interested in buying out Satyam if it was put up for sale without its liabilities and damages from the class law suits in the US where the IT firm is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

‘This is not the time to think or say anything on such matters,’ he said.