"The government has several regulatory mechanisms in place, but when such things happen despite these mechanisms, there is a requirement to look at further strengthening these mechanisms", Corporate Affairs Minister Samlam Khurshid told reporters when asked as to what would his ministry be doing to prevent recurrence of the housing finance scam.
The racket came to light after CBI arrested the CEO of LIC Housing Finance Ramachandran Nair, LIC Secretary (Investment) Naresh K Chopra, CMD of Mumbai-based firm Money Matters Rajesh Sharma and five other bank officials for colluding with real estate companies.
The real estate developers which have been named by the CBI include Mantri Realty, Kumar Developers, DB Realty, Emaar MGF and Lavasa Corporation.
Khurshid said his ministry, "always looks into matters that require us to take closer look. When such things come to the public there is a need for us to look into the various aspects of corporate governance".
Noting that prudential norms are not everything, he said, "there has to be integrity in terms of application and operation. We are not concerned how business is done. We are concerned how business is reported and compliance issues with respect to company law."
When a big scam takes place, Khurshid said, "we check things through our internal system. If a regulatory agency thinks we should look into something specific then we look into it. Every regulatory authority has to do their own job first."
He said the ministry has already put in place systems to take care of frauds.
"We have systems in place through which we are always vigilant. Our early warning system ...if there is something different from the set patterns then we take actions. That is very clear in the company law," he added.