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PwC can't distance itself from Satyam fiasco: ICAI

January 16, 2009

Chartered accountants regulator ICAI today questioned the role of Satyam's statutory auditor Price Waterhouse, saying the bookkeeper cannot dissociate itself from the IT company's accounting fiasco.

Price Waterhouse, auditors of Satyam for over eight years, had yesterday said that its audit of the company's financials could be "inaccurate and unreliable" in view of the financial irregularities disclosed by Ramalinga Raju.

"This does not absolve them of the defaults already committed, if any," ICAI president Ved Jain told reporters.

ICAI had earlier issued a showcause notice to PwC on the issue.

Price Waterhouse had said that all those financial statements were prepared by the management and that it relied "on management controls over financial reporting, and the information and explanations provided by the management, as also the verbal and written representations made to us during the course of our audits."

Satyam as well as PwC are the subject of regulatory and government investigation into the country's biggest corporate fraud - involving Rs 7,800 crore - disclosed by Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju. Raju, his brother Rama Raju and Satyam CFO Vadlamani Srinivas are in judicial custody now.