Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has said he would exert pressure on Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for a final report on the multi-crore Satyam scam, although the accounting regulator said it has submitted one interim report in July.
“I don’t know why it (ICAI report) is not coming. I am not able to understand what the delay is about... I will ask him (ministry’s secretary) to put pressure,” he told PTI when asked, by when he expected the report on the Satyam scam from ICAI.
The fraud was disclosed by Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju himself in January and ICAI began looking into it that month. “I think they (ICAI) are a bit slow on that...now that we have finished everything else, this will be our priority,” the Minister said.
The Institute, when contacted, said it has submitted an interim report on the fraud to the government and is working on a second report. The findings of the first report are not known.
Stressing that the Satyam report was a priority for the ICAI, its president Uttam Agarwal had told reporters in Hyderabad last month that the probe will be completed before February next year.
Following the disclosure of the accounting fraud in January by the founder of Satyam Computer Services B. Ramalinga Raju, ICAI had appointed a high-powered committee to look into the role of chartered accountants in the fraud and also initiate disciplinary proceedings against them.
The six-member committee is headed by Agarwal and ICAI council members-S.L. Dogra, Amarjeet Chopra, Subodh Aggarwal and Akshay Gupta-along with a government nominee, K R Maheshwari, a banker and chartered accountant.
Agarwal also said that S Gopalakrishnan, one of the partners and auditors of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who signed the financial statement of Satyam, has been stripped off all non-standing committee posts. Gopalakrishnan would, however, continue as the ICAI council member, he said.
Further, the disciplinary committee of the ICAI had issued a show cause notice to the Pricewaterhouse auditors-S. Talluri and Gopalakrishnan in January this year. The time given to them was extended thrice and the last date given to them was June 30.
