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Jailed Satyam auditor continues to be ICAI member

Published on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 16:18 | Source : CNBC-TV18

Updated at Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 15:47

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has withdrawn Pricewaterhouse auditor S Gopalakrishnan from its non-standing committees, sources told CNBC-TV18's Ashwin Mohan.

S Gopalkrishnan is currently under judicial custody at Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad for his alleged role in the Satyam scam. The withdrawal would avoid conflict of interest in further probe.

The non-standing committees included indirect tax, trade law and WTO. The decision would be officially communicated to Gopalakrishnan by tomorrow. Gopalakrishnan would continue as an ICAI member, sources added.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Ashwin Mohan's comments on CNBC-TV18. Also see the accompanying video.

The accounting regulator had come under intense criticism in the recent past for the lack of any specific action against two of the Price Waterhouse auditors involved in the Satyam scam, i.e. Talluri Srinivas and S Gopalakrishnan. But now we believe, according to sources, that the accounting regulator ‑ ICAI has in fact taken action against one of them i.e. S Gopalakrishnan. According to sources, ICAI has withdrawn S Gopalakrishnan from all its non-standing committees.

Now, some of these non-standing committees are related to indirect tax, WTO, trade law etc. We believe that this decision was taken day-before yesterday and will be officially communicated to S Gopalakrishnan by tomorrow. However, there is a point to be kept in mind that S Gopalakrishnan will continue to remain a member of the ICAI. Currently, he is under judicial custody in Hyderabad.

Another point picked up from sources and this is just a consideration that is being currently mooted by ICAI. The accounting regulator is currently mooting to disallow not more than two registered firms to have identical names. But this is just at the preliminary stage of discussion and we believe a final decision on this will be taken by October.