Stem cooking of books

A new report has revealed that one in five company executives, has no qualms tinkering with books of accounts to achieve a certain financial target, especially during the hard times. And it is not just any other executive, but the very gatekeepers of probity in a business organisation including chief finance officers, chief compliance officers, heads of internal audit and heads of legal departments.

That is how low we have sunk. Probity has gone to the dogs even as corruption eats into every section of the society. This is a sad reality. Recently, a bank had to restate its financial books after underreporting its insider loans. Directors at several companies have been found guilty of the same crime.