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Icai wings clipped over Satyam scam

New Delhi: The fraud perpetrated by Satyam Computer Services Ltd’s founder B. Ramalinga Raju has claimed some collateral damage: the apex body of accountants in the country, and its current president Uttam Prakash Agarwal.

The government has, in recent weeks, tightened its control over the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (Icai) diluting Agarwal’s own powers in the process.

The move comes ahead of crucial elections to the body founded in 1949 and which regulates the functioning of at least 150,000 chartered accountants who sign off on the financial statements of companies—a sort of first line of defence against any financial misconduct by management or promoters.

Some of the government’s actions are seen by two people, an Icai council member and an official at the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), as a reaction to Agarwal’s handling of the Satyam scandal, an allegation Agarwal denies.

Icai’s council is the institute’s core decision-making unit.

One of the charges against Agarwal is that he has been “soft” on S. Gopalakrishnan, a partner at Price Waterhouse, which audited Satyam’s books, and now in jail as his role in the Satyam scandal is investigated. “The allegation that I have gone slow on Gopalakrishnan or produced a weak report is absolute rubbish,” Agarwal said.   read more