ICAI probe in Satyam case in final stages

Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the ICAI is i the final phase of investigation.

The government allayed apprehensions that accounting regulator ICAI was not working speedily against auditors involved in the accounting fraud in erstwhile Satyam Computers,even as the US counterpart has already banned two such auditors.

8220;The work is in final phase. ICAI is working on it8230; We should not say they are not working. We are moving forward,8221; Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on the sidelines of a CII function in New Delhi.

Earlier this month,the US regulator for auditors,Public Company Accounting Oversight Board PCAOB,had barred Siva Prasad Pulavarthi and Chintapatla Ravindernath senior executives with PricewaterhouseCoopers associate Lovelock amp; Lewes,the former auditor for Satyam Computers.

However,the Indian accounting regulator,ICAI,is yet to complete its disciplinary committee hearings against two PriceWaterhouse auditors involved in Satyam accounting 8212; S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri8211;who were imprisoned and recently were granted bail.

Khurshid said,8221;We must keep in mind those two people were imprisoned8230; We will move forward very quickly8230; There is no reason to worry on what needs to be done.8221;

The Minister said ICAI is awaiting certain documents,which could not be furnished earlier as the two auditors were in jail.

Siva Prasad Pulavarthi and Chintapatla Ravindernath were senior executives with PricewaterhouseCoopers8217; associate Lovelock amp; Lewes,the former auditor for Satyam Computers.

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LoveLock had undertaken the auditing of Satyam8217;s account for four years between 2004-05 and 2007-08.

Market regulator SEBI is also investigating auditors8217; role among other things in Satyam fraud.

Khurshid said,8221;I think you can be assured that SEBI will do the best8230; no timeline,but we are just trying to do the things that need to be done8230;8221;

Over Rs 7,000 crore Satyam fraud came into light in January,2009,when the then Chairman Ramalinga Raju had confessed to overstating the accounts in the balancesheet.