POLITICIANS MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE.

The Indian society is pasing through turbulent times. But the crisis is not because of rising prices, terrorist attacks or the global financial meltdown. The real crisis  is that our political parties and governments have ceased to govern. Politics has shed its pro-people concerns. It now suffers from the "numbing effect of private prosperity". Having willingly become hostage to market fundamentalism, they consider the Nehruvian vision of state led mixed economy a distortion. They forget that one-third of the world's poor live in this country. The "hawkish" assertion against Pakistan after the senseless terror attacks show that Indian politics is hostage to ultra-nationalism. This lesson comes directly from the so-called war against terror. War on Pakistan will not eliminate the cause of terrorism. Just as the war against Iraq and liquidation of Saddam Hussein has made the world more vulnerable to attacks. In the political olympiad, Indian politicians are wobblers not gymnasts who have body discipline and a capacity to control their surroundings. In the words of Barrows Dunham, the most astonishing feats result from the play of contradictory forces over which wobbler exerts no influence at all. They just follow the wave that is stronger. Accountability is the first victim of a politics devoid of ideology. In the quest for capturing power, norms of political behaviour and moral veneer have made ideologies redundant. Evrybody seems to be in a hurry to shed whatever ideology they have had and refuse to embrace any normative system. The need is to reverse the trend and make politics less corrupt and more efficient. It is wrong to understand the crisis as either poliical, or economic, or social. We need to take a holistic view.
C. S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad-500017
Andhra Pradesh, India
Cell. No. 9985732397
Landline No. 040-27000719 
email id: chakku1968@gmail.com
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HOW ACCOUNTS GET MANIPULATED

Indian accounting standards are generally said to be robust and have evolved overtime. Now, many firms intend to migrate to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the currently followed Indian GAAP. This is expected to herald a new era - better access to global capital markets and many more disclosures, implying greater financial discipline. However, experts say companies can still manipulate their financial statements to inflate revenues, margins and cash balances - much like what Satyam did. Accounting fraud is typically a top management fraud. While experts diverge on how rampant it is in India, they will agree it does take place in the name of adjustments. KPMG'S forensic wing, for instance, had conducted about 100 investigations in 2008 related to various economic offences, including diversion of funds, kickbacks and financial statement fraud. So how do companies manipulate? On the revenue side, firms can inflate figures by showing sales that did not happen - pass fake sales invoices, show goods that did not get dispatched as dispatched.  On the corresponding side you can show cost decrease from the manufacturing of those goods; so the gross margins gets inflated. Similarly when firms give discounts, they may not want to recoognise them and record the sale at the correct value. From the IT services perspective, you can create a fictitious contract and show that you have spent time and effort on that. Similarly, an IT products company can dispatch CD's loaded with or without software to fictitious addresses. An accountant has the flexibility to interpret. So one could manage depreciation of assets.

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