Will give details to regulators: Price Waterhouse

Price Waterhouse, statutory auditor of Satyam Computer, today said it will furnish the necessary information to the regulators concerned in their probe into the accounts of the scandal-hit IT firm.

"The firm has been and remains committed to cooperating with ongoing investigations and to facilitating various regulators' understanding of the Satyam accounts," a Price Waterhouse spokesperson said in a emailed statement.

Asked if the auditors have been contacted by the authorities and whether it came across any forged documents while auditing Satyam's accounts, Price Waterhouse said, "Given our obligations (to) client confidentiality, it is not possible for us to provide any details. PW can only furnish these details to the company and the regulators."

The company did not reply to queries on whether it was duped by Satyam or whether it was awed by the stature of the firm and the IT company's management while doing its audit.

PW also did not comment on whether it conducted a physical verification of Satyam's assets, including its fixed assets and investments such as fixed deposits.

A PW spokesperson declined to give the details the auditor has shared with regulators.

The auditor is understood to have prepared its defence on the basis of fixed deposit documents, foreign exchange earnings and receivables of Satyam, as per the export clearance documents of Software Technology Parks of India, which showed that the IT firm was doing well till September 30, 2008.

PW officials are understood to have given these documents to probing agencies to make clear their position while maintaining that they had gone by the book for auditing.