Slamming regulators, bank managements and auditors for their failure to detect bank frauds, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released a statement signaling the government's displeasure over the Reserve Bank of India's failure to call fraud on the £1.13 billion PNB case. “Politicians are accountable but regulators are not,” Jaitley said.
“We must always remember that regulators have a very important function. They ultimately decide the rules of the game and they have to have a third eye kept perpetually open and turned towards the sector. But unfortunately, in Indian system, we politicians are accountable, the regulators are not,” he said at the Economic Times Global Business Summit. The comments came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised “strict action” against those engaging in financial manipulation and sought tight monitoring and surveillance to guard against misuse of public funds.
Jaitley had earlier in the week, criticised the role of errant companies, bank managements, and auditors. His recent statements however, were the strongest. “They call for every person in position with whatever responsibility to undertake to perform his job and where regulation is lacking, it needs to be strengthened. Ultimately, if fraud is taking place in multiple branches of the banking system and you do not have a single employee raising the red flag, is that not worrisome for the country as a whole?” Jaitley asked.
