ICAI charges four Price Waterhouse and two Satyam auditors
29 Sep 2009
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has found two top officials of Satyam Computer Services, including its former chief financial officer Srinavas Vadlamani, and four auditors of Price Waterhouse prima facie guilty of in connection in the Rs 7,800-crore fraud at Satyam.
The disciplinary committee found Price Waterhouse, Bangalore auditors S Gopalakrishnan, Srinivas Talluri, P Shiva Prasad and C H Ravindranath prima facie guilty of professional misconduct. Besides, ICAI has also found both the New Delhi and Kolkata arms of audit firm Price Waterhouse prima facie guilty of misconduct.
Apart from Vadlamani, the other company official held prima facie guilty is V S Prabhakara Gupta, formerly Satyam's senior vice-president, internal audit cell.
ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal said that the disciplinary committee of the apex body of chartered accountants has held that Vadlamani failed to carry out his statutory duties as CFO, while Gupta failed to carry out internal audit of the firm's accounts.
Of the Price Waterhouse auditors, Agarwal said Prasad and Ravindranath were part of the audit team for Satyam, while Gopalakrishnan and Talluri signed the balance sheet.
This has paved the way for the Institute to issue separate notices to the six, Agarwal said. The notices have to be replied to in 21 days.