In his first press conference after taking charge as the outsourcing company’s interim CEO, Ram Mynampati said: “Salaries for December will be covered, but the liquidity position is not encouraging at all. We are looking at options on how to improve liquidity.”

Analysts say Satyam’s monthly salary bill adds up to Rs 600-700 crore. Mynampati said “he did not know” if the company had that much. He said the company was speaking to its top 100 clients who provide almost 80% of revenues, and had received expressions of support from key customers.

Claiming complete ignorance of the Rs 8,000 crore fraud to which S Ramalinga Raju, Satyam’s chairman and promoter admitted Wednesday, Mynampati said, “I and the board members present here, were in no way privy to the alleged financial irregularities that emerge from the circulated email.”

He said Satyam was yet to verify auditor Price Waterhouse’s process. “We haven’t been in contact... but we will be,” he said.

The company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Srinivas Vadlamani, conspicuous by his absence at the press conference, tendered his resignation today. Mynampati said Vadlamani had skipped the conference for personal reasons. “The board has not accepted his resignation yet,” Mynampati said.

The interim CEO declined to comment on whether Raju was absconding, but said, “I do not know where he is, though I assume he is in Hyderabad.”

Some time before midnight, Raju’s lawyer issued a statement saying his client was indeed in Hyderabad, and was “amenable to the process of law.” “My client Ramalinga Raju denies reports that he has fled from the country,” lawyer S. Bharat Kumar said.

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