Satyam scam: ICAI to hold disciplinary meetings in Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Jan 24 (PTI) Institute of CharteredAccountants of India (ICAI) will hold all its DisciplinaryCommittee meetings on Satyam Computers multi-crore accountingscam henceforth in Hyderabad, ICAI Vice-President G Ramaswamy,Vice-President said today.

At present, the ICAI is in the process of framing chargeson two employees of Satyam namely Vadlamni Srinivas, formerCFO and V Prabhakar Gupta, former internal auditor, Satyam andtwo former auditors of PricewaterhouseCoopers - SGopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri.

"The Delhi High Court order issued last month clearlystates that criminal proceedings and investigations related toprofessional misconduct are two different issues. It alsoasked the auditors to appear for the ICAI''s meetings so thatwe can proceed with the case," said Ramaswamy on the sidelinesof International Taxation Conference - ''Jnanadeep'' organisedby the ICAI.

After the Satyam scam broke out in Janury 2009, apex bodyof Chartered Accountants found the four auditors guilty ofmisconduct.

The CBI in its chargesheet also alleged that the externalauditors were paid hefty sums to cook up company accounts,thus becoming part of the crime.

He said that the Institute will hold its next meeting inthird week of February.

"PWC and auditors who got bail, are appearing before thespecial court every day. As a result they are unable to attendthe Committee''s proceedings. Henceforth, we will conduct allrelated meetings in Hyderabad," Ramswamy said.

ICAI''s high-powered committee in its report had earliersaid, prima facie, the conduct of the auditors both fromPricewaterhouse, which was the then statutory auditor ofSatyam, and Satyam''s internal audit team, was found negligent.

(More) PTI GDK VKV

Meanwhile, ICAI expressed surprise over the delay in implementing international accounting norms, IFRS.

According to Amarjit Chopra, president, ICAI, the normswere decided by a core group in which all the industryassociations, including FICCI, FAPCCI and Assocham, were partof the core group, which prepared the IFRS norms.

"We did our job and submitted the same. We don''tunderstand why some industry associations are now raisingconcerns over implementation," he said.

Last month, FICCI has asked the government to delay theimplementation of IFRS citing the April, 2011 deadline ashighly unworkable and unfair.