Nine member Appellate Authority appointed to handle cases against CA, CS, ICWA

Even as an increasing number of complaints flood in concerning professional misconduct by chartered accountants (CA), company secretaries (CS) and cost accountants, the government has appointed a nine-member Appellate Authority to hear such cases. The new members include Anand
Mohan Bajaj, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Praveen Garg, J Venketeswarlu, Pankaj Tyagee, Pravakar Mohanty, B M Sharma, Preeti Malhotra, Shyam Agarwal among others.

According to the notification, the appointment is valid with effect from March 1, 2019. The authority was first established by the government in March 2009. And any member of the Institute, including CA, CS or Cost Accountant, held guilty of professional or other misconduct who is aggrieved by any punitive order may appeal against it to the Appellate Authority.

Over the last year, a series of high-profile bank frauds combined with the IL&FS crisis has put the spotlight on auditors and their role in effectively red flagging misgovernance. From the government to the RBI, authorities have raised concerns over auditors’ role in various scams. The fallout has seen the government making several changes to regulate auditors.

First, by making it compulsory for CAs to provide a Unique Document Identification Number during tax and GST document audits. This decision will come into effect from April 1. This mandate will also be extended to all other attestations from July 1, 2019. In fact, the RBI is also set to hold formal meetings with banks’ auditors on a quarterly basis from April 1.