Sugato Bhattacharya, the Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL) country manager in Vietnam, has been appointed as the Managing Director of Ranbaxy UK Limited (RUKL), a subsidiary of RLL, after the company sacked the entire top brass in RUKL for financial bungling.

V.K. Kaul, Executive Vice President, Finance and Corporate Services, RLL said in a company communiqué that the new managing director has already assumed charge of the UK operations.

Commenting on the subject of financial bungling, Kaul maintained that the current business of RUKL has been exaggerated while maintaining that the internal audit of RUKL revealed certain discrepancies in finances.

He continued that RUKL has a current business of USD 20 million and has profits, which are normal to a generic market. In this context the figure quoted of Rs 40-45 crore is grossly exaggerated and is absolutely out of line with the overall size of our business operations in this country.

During the course of internal audit early this year of RUKL certain discrepancies were detected primarily on account of bonus goods and trade discounts to certain customers. The Regional Management based in London investigated the matter and took steps for recovery; practically, the entire amount involved has since been recovered and accounted for in the current year, he further clarified.