FINMIN TO GO HI-TECH TO DETECT ACCOUNTING FRAUDS
New Delhi, June 15, 2009
The Economic Times The Times of India
In the aftermath of financial fraud at IT giant Satyam Computer, the Finance Ministry has decided to go hi-tech in its vigilance and use a new computer-assisted tool for detecting suspicious accounts.
One of the functions of the new tool would be 'fraud detection', wherein it would find out whether purchases and expenses have been inflated through fictitious entries in the account books filed by individual and corporate taxpayers.
The Finance Ministry's Income Tax Department initially plans to install the new tool, named Computer Assisted Investigation Tool (CAIT), at 25 locations and later extend it to other parts of the country.
The new tool would also be used for investigating and identifying the "suspicious" features in the accounts seized by the department, besides those produced at will by the taxpayers.
While technology has helped organise bulky account books, it has also come in handy for tax evaders who use it to generate fictitious bills as was the case in Satyam Computer and the experts believe that the help of software could be useful for the tax department in detecting many frauds.
In a request for proposal (RFP) from potential vendors, the Income Tax Department has said that the software application would be used for "investigation and analysis of computerised accounts of tax payers and identification of suspicious features in such accounts."
At present, the department's scrutiny of books of accounts and the subsidiary records is mostly manual, although most of the taxpayers have switched to computer-based method of maintaining their books.
The Income Tax Department said that most of its global counterparts, especially those in developed countries, are using software tools for analysis of computerised accounts and accordingly it has also decided to computerise all its functions in line with the best international practices.
"One of the components of this roadmap is to develop software-based audit tool to analyse accounts to assist in scrutiny assessment process," the department said, adding that the new tool would help its officers in conducting "audit and investigation on a number of parameters."
In the first phase, the new tool would be installed on the PCs of each of its Assessing Officers, while in the second phase the audit tool would be moved to a centralised database. Among its various functions, CAIT would identify the duplication of values, check the sequencing and detect gaps, summarise fields and would also have a find or search option.
The software should have a facility for the user to query the accounting data containing the purchase information against the bogus or fictitious purchasers based on the name, address, phone number, VAT or sales Tax number etc. Besides, the software would also be used for "identification of anomalies and exceptions in accounting data."
The Department plans to first test the software at its premises in Hyderabad, following which it would be installed at other centres. The Department has decided to rope in a consortium of up to three vendors for this software tool, but it would directly deal only with the principal vendor.
The potential vendors have been asked to provide an overview of the company, including their brief history, financial position, products and service portfolio, skills and experience. Besides, they need to have experience of handling "large project", involving data in excess of 20 million records, either in the government or any reputed private organisation.
Besides installing and making function the tool, the vendor would also be responsible for training 20 users for one week at every location and then maintain and support the software package for a period of three years as and when called by the Department.
ZYLOG SYSTEMS EYES 2 OVERSEAS BUYS IN GOVERNANCE SPACE
Chennai, June 15, 2009
The Hindu Business Line
To ramp up its operation in the e-governance segment, Zylog Systems plans to acquire two overseas companies by the year-end.
On the sidelines of launching the ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services, Ramanujam Sesharathnam, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Zylog Systems, said that the company was in talks with a couple of companies with revenues of less than $10 million (about Rs 50 crore) in the e-governance and managed governance space.
The company had acquired PEQ Consulting, an infrastructure management company, and Fairfax Consulting in November 2008.
Zylog Systems India, a subsidiary of Zylog Systems, will invest about Rs 200 crore in expanding its ‘Wi5’ wireless broadband services in five metropolitan cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata – in two years.
With 250 wireless nodes installed across Chennai, 4,000 more nodes are expected to be operational in the city in 12-15 months.
On why the company chose Wi5 technology and not the more advanced Wi-Max technology, J. Shivkumar, Chief Technology Officer, Zylog Systems India, said most handheld devices such as mobiles, laptops and notebooks were only Wi5-enabled.
In terms of cost, coverage and capacity ‘Wi5’ was competitive, while the Wi-Max technology was expensive. The newly launched ‘Wi5’ retail packages are available at 1 mbps, 2 mbps and 4 mbps at Rs 550, Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,750.
COMPUTERISED RECORD OF DELHI PARKS SOON
New Delhi, June 15, 2009
The Hindu
Delhi Government is preparing a computerised record of thousands of parks and gardens in the city to ensure that they are free from encroachment and well maintained ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games.
There are about 18,000 small and big parks across the capital with around 14,000 under the municipal body, 3,000 with DDA and as many as 1,500 with NDMC.
"We have selected at least 10,000 parks and gardens, digital records of which will be maintained so that they are adequately spruced up and greenery assured ahead of the mega games event next year," SD Singh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delhi Parks and Garden Society told PTI.
So far, about 3,000 parks have already been covered under the digitisation programme, the official said.
