Satyam's auditor PWC hides from ICAI's lens

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 01:30 IST   |    10 Comments
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Satyam's auditor PWC hides from ICAI's lens
New Delhi: After the company directors, it's Satyam's statutory auditor who is under the legal lens of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for their role in the financial irregularities. However, the firm's auditor, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said, "We have learnt of the disclosure made by the Chairman of Satyam Computer Services and are currently examining the contents of the statement. We are not commenting further on this subject due to issues of client confidentiality." All financial statements for the year-ended March 31, 2008 of Satyam were audited by PWC. ICAI President Ved Jain maintained that, as an auditing profession regulator, ICAI can take action against any defaulting member, without any formal complaint. They believe that the confession letter of Ramalinga is 100 percent fit for any disciplinary proceedings to be initiated. The regulator has already begun to collect information on the Satyam case and have sent letters in this regard to get all the facts. It has made no attempt to dispose of the matter relating to PWC's role as auditor in the Global Trust Bank (GTB) matter. Citing the neglisance of the auditor, many accountants have pointed that it was normal practice for auditors to do surprise verification of cash at least once in a financial year. They were baffled by the balance sheet, which as on September 30, 2008 carried inflated (non existent) cash and bank balances of 5,040 crore (as against 5,361 crore reflected in the books). They are also of the view that auditors independently take confirmation from banks for balances at the end of an accounting period. However, they believe that firms can inflate revenues by including showing consignment sales as regular revenues or recognizing revenues on incomplete projects.

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