ICAI mulls making names of tainted auditors' public

CHENNAI: Accounting regulator Icai is considering making names of tainted auditors public information, in an effort to enhance transparency and repose public faith in the auditing community.

This community came under criticism in the aftermath of the accounting scandal at software firm Satyam, where auditors helped the management to fudge and inflate revenues and cash figures.

Icai’s attempt at improving transparency is somewhat similar to Cibil (Credit Information Bureau of India Limited), which has information on credit history of borrowers.

Talking to reporters in Chennai on Tuesday, Icai president Amarjit Chopra said, “We will take it up in the council to host names of members who have been held guilty of professional misconduct on our website. We might take it up in the April or May meeting. The council will not hesitate in doing this because it will improve the public perception about the institute.”

Icai’s disciplinary committee had earlier found the two Satyam auditors- Srinivas Talluri and S Gopalakrishnan guilty of professional misconduct but could not take any action since they were in jail since January last year.

“Delays are inevitable in certain cases. Our hands were tied because they were in jail. But, if the two are available for a period of 2-3 months, we would like to finish it off in that period,” Mr Chopra said.

Mr Chopra further said that the disciplinary committee would issue notices to Srinivas Talluri, who got out of jail on bail last month. While Icai has powers to take action against an individual, it is not empowered to do the same against a particular firm. But it is pushing for some change in this aspect.

“Our high-power committee report presented to the government recommends the need for power to against firms. We require certain powers if there are repeated failures on the part of a firm,” Mr Chopra said.