Chartered accountants regulator ICAI on Friday said the action against PwC by capital markets regulator SEBI, including banning its network entities for two years from issuing audit certificates to listed companies in India on finding it guilty in the Satyam scam, was only a reiteration of the verdict passed by the ICAI Disciplinary Committee.
The difference is that while the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) had punished the members concerned, the SEBI has imposed this punishment on the audit firm concerned, the CA regulator said in a statement.
Declining to comment on the specifics of the SEBI order, the ICAI, however, said: “under the present provisions of the CA Act 1949, there are no powers presently vested with ICAI for taking action against CA firms.”
The ICAI has already sent its recommendation in 2010 to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for making amendments in the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 to enable taking disciplinary action against CA firms, it added.
On the Satyam case, the ICAI said it “was the first off the block (to take action) when the Satyam matter broke out in January 2009.”
ICAI had initiated disciplinary cases against six members concerned, it said, adding that despite several legal hurdles and other impediments like the respondents (the CAs) in judicial custody, ICAI had proceeded with its disciplinary process in terms of the CA Act and the rules framed there under.
Maximum penalty
The CA regulator said it had awarded the maximum penalty of removal from ICAI membership permanently and imposition of monetary penalty on members of ICAI involved in the matter.
“We are disappointed with the findings of the Sebi investigations and the adjudication order... we are confident of getting a stay before this order becomes effective,” the PwC had said in a statement.
