ICAI to serve showcause notice on PwC in a week

ICAI will serve a showcause notice on PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a week after collecting information from Sebi and Registrar of Companies(RoC), and action against CAs can be expected in 2-3 months, if found guilty.

"We have written to Sebi. We are writing to RoC for collecting facts on Satyam. We are likely to issue showcause notice in a week's time," ICAI President Ved Jain said here.

He said the institute would expedite the process this time and would be in a position to take action against CAs, if found guilty.

CAs, found either negligent or party to the fraud, could face a life-time ban on practising, Jain said.

When asked why has it taken ICAI more than three years to take action against auditors of Global Trust Bank, he said, because the Act was amended in 2006 to provide expeditious completion of disciplinary action.

Jain said the statement of Raju that only he knew about the financial wrong-doing did not look like the whole truth, as he did not write the accounts of his company.

Yesterday, B Ramalinga Raju in a letter written to the Board admitted, "...None of the board members, past or present, had any knowledge of the situation in which the company is placed."