'Auditor party to falsification of Satyam accounts'
Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Apr 17, 2009, 18:42 IST
Holding global auditors Price Waterhouse guilty of wrongdoings in the multi-crore Satyam scam, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office has informed the government that the bookkeepers were involved in falsification of accounts of the IT firm.
Detailing the role of Price Waterhouse partners in the scam involving thousands of crores of rupees, the probing arm of the Corporate Affairs Ministry has concluded after a three month long investigation that the auditors kept silent despite knowing about the failure of the IT firm's audit system in 2007.
No official comments could be obtained from the agency, while a PW spokesperson did not respond to e-mail as well as telephonic queries. Earlier, PW had said that it had done no wrong and followed all the standard practices and relied on the information given by the management for auditing purpose.
The SFIO had submitted to the government a voluminous report running into over 14,000 pages, where it has alleged that the two PW partners working on Satyam account - S Gopalakrishnan and Talluri Srinivas - were guilty of account falsification.
The auditing firm has already dissociated itself from the two partners, who were earlier arrested by Andhra Pradesh police and are now being probed by various
Some time back, as per a report appearing in the Indian Express on 5th April, 2009, the President of ICAI, Mr Agarwal, had said, that Vadlamani Srinivas (then CFO of Satyam) had told ICAI that " the auditors have no role in the scam. All Fixed Deposit receipts and bank statements were provided by one G Ramakrishna who was heading the cost accountancy department of the company, under the direction of (Ramalinga) Raju," implying, if not accepting, that this is a good enough argument to defend the criminal negligence that was shown by Satyam's auditors. Effectively and shockingly, the President of ICAI was asking the investing public to believe that the auditors cannot be faulted if they are "presented" with "fake" documents. I think SFIO should also investigate the complicity/role of ICAI in protecting these so-called senior members of their fraternity, one of whom, it seems, is still a member of some committees of ICAI!
Content Guide
