Parakh & Co, Chartered Accounting firm appointed by the Department of Telecom to audit the books of Reliance Communications, has sought protection against ‘frivolous criminal complaint’ filed by the telecom company.
Letter to DoT
In a letter to the Secretary, DoT, the accounting firm alleged that RCom was harassing and intimidating it with a view to influencing the independence of the profession.
“The company has filed a criminal case complaint against our firm; this attempt is highly objectionable because as the special auditors we actually functioned as an independent agency working for the Government of India. Any such course of action by Reliance Communications will give a bad message to the auditors’ fraternity.
“Therefore, in the larger interest of upholding the faith and confidence of the auditors that their independency and impartiality shall be protected from any outrageous extortion and influence, we request you to take immediate action,” stated a letter from the Jaipur-based auditing firm to the DoT. Based on RCom’s complaint the anti-extortion cell in Navi Mumbai has sent a notice to Parakh Co.
The audit firm said that the notice is “an attempt to coerce and influence the ordinary professionals and a sort of vendetta cast upon our firm for doing our work.”
Parakh & Co added that RCom has also filed complaints with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Registrar of Companies alleging that the auditor had failed to exercise due diligence while conducting the audit.
“This is yet another attempt to play with the reputation and professional integrity of the firm and its representatives,” the letter said.
Last year, Parakh & Co had conducted an audit on RCom’s accounts to investigate allegations of under reporting of revenues by the telecom company to avoid paying licence fee. The audit report said that RCom did not pay around Rs 316 crore in licence and spectrum fees in the two years ended March 31, 2008.
Findings dismissed
However, RCom had dismissed the auditor’s findings as baseless and had filed complaints with ICAI in October last year. RCom officials said that right from day one the company had said that the findings of the audit will be challenged.
RCom had filed a complaint with the cyber cell seeking investigation into the alleged leakage of the audit report to the media.
