KPMG, Deloitte appointed Satyam auditors; PwC raided

14 Jan 2009

KPMG and Deolitte have been asked to restate scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services' accounts that have been earlier audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers even as intelligence officers investigating PwC's complicity in the scam, has raided the audit firm's office in Hyderabad.

The new board of Satyam Computer Services comprising HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, former president of Nasscom Kiran Karnik  and former member Sebi C Achuthan, has asked the two companies to jointly restate Satyam accounts. 

Intelligence officers of Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday searched the Jubilee Hills office of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The eight-member CID team also seized several documents relating to the accounting fraud.

The searches were conducted on the information provided by former Satyam CFO V Srinivas.

Srinivas in his statement to the police said: ''Based on the PwC's audit findings, I used to take comfort and certify the accounts. The auditors never pointed out any deficiencies in the accounts''.
 
The Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India have served show-cause notice on PwC while market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) too has started probing PwC's role.

PWC itself is reported to have warned corporates not to go by its audit report on Satyam Computer.

PwC India oversight board is meeting in Mumbai amidst calls by a section of the PwC's partners that the present top brass be changed. The company's global CEO Samuel Di Piazza is likely to attend the meeting.

PwC's legal advisors have, meanwhile, advised against any legal action against the audit firm's employee S Gopalakrishnan, who approved Satyam's audit without an enquiry.