The Appellate Authority for chartered accountants has upheld the
ICAI's decision to bar two auditors -- P Sivaprasad and Chintapatla
Ravindernath – for professional misconduct in auditing the books of
erstwhile Satyam Computer Services.
The founder chairman of
Satyam Computer B Ramalinga Raju had fudged the company's accounts to
the tune of more than Rs 6,000 crore over a period of nine years
starting from 2000.
A disciplinary panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) had found both of them guilty in December 2011.
Sivaprasad
and Ravindernath were part of Price Waterhouse and Company of India at
Bangalore (PW India, Bangalore) – the statutory auditor of Satyam
Computer from 2000 till 2009.
The Appellate Authority of the
ICAI, in its order last month, said that the "very fact that fudged
accounts were certified as true and fair accounts for nine long years
shows and proves that the conduct of the audit by the auditors was in
gross disregard to the audit requirements..."
In December 2011,
the disciplinary panel had found the two auditors guity of professional
misconduct. Consequently, they were slapped with a penalty of Rs 5 lakh
each besides seeking the removal of their names from the Institute's
register of members.
The order came on appeals made by Sivaprasad and Ravindernath against the panel's decision.
The Appellate Authority, set up under the Chartered Accountants Act, is chaired by former Delhi High Court Judge S N Dhingra.
According
to Appellate Authority's order, Sivaprasad was associated with the
audit of Satyam from April 2000 to March 2005 while Ravindernath was
associated with the company's audit from April 2005 to September 2008.