ICAI bans another Price Waterhouse auditor for life

Sending a sharp message against corrupt or negligent accounting practices, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Monday banned former Price Waterhouse India auditor Srinivas Talluri from practice for life over the Satyam Computer accounting fraud.

Also banned for life was Vadlamani Srinivas, who was chief financial officer of the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services. The two have been barred from ever attesting financial statements, and have also been slapped with a fine of Rs5 lakh each.

The ICAI has also found S Gopalakrishnan, another Price Waterhouse auditor who was working on the Satyam audit, guilty in the over Rs14,000-crore scam – the biggest in corporate Indian history – at the information technology major that was unearthed in 2009 after founder Ramalinga Raju confessed to cooking the books. His punishment has not yet been decided.

According to newly elected ICAI president Jaydeep Shah, the disciplinary committee of the institute found the two auditors guilty of professional misconduct. ''The committee has ordered that the names Vadlamani Srinivas and Srinivas Talluri be removed from the register of members permanently. Also, a fine of Rs5 lakh each has been imposed on both of them which is the maximum under the Chartered Accountants Act,'' he said soon after taking charge.

"We will now act against Gopalakrishnan and V S Prabhakara Gupta (ex-internal audit head of Satyam), who have also been found guilty," Shah added.

The fresh action comes after a similar action against two junior auditors in December last year, who were also banned for life for "serious gross negligence" in the Satyam audit. Chintapatla Ravindranath and P Siva Prasad - who worked for Lovelock & Lewes, then (an affiliate of Price Waterhouse India) audit managers, who performed the Satyam audit between April 2001 and September 2008 on behalf of PW India.