CA guilty of professional misconduct for failure to report suspicious book entries

Suffice it to highlight that in paras 26 and 27 of the report the Committee highlighted the modus operandi adopted by PCL and AIL to form a loop with no cash flow coming in, but sales, stocks and receivables increases. The obligation of the auditor concerning transactions which are merely book entries was highlighted i.e. the duty of the auditor to enquire whether the transactions were prejudicial to the interest of the company being not discharged by the auditors. The Committee also highlighted that as an auditor it was the obligation of the respondent to comment about the internal control procedures of the company. With reference to AAS-3 and AAS-4, the Committee further brought out the obligations of the auditor to be discharged in the course of the audit.

The Committee has also highlighted the duties of the auditor to maintain the working papers and documents and noted that in spite of repeatedly directed to do so, the respondent did not produce the papers and took the plea that since the year 2003 he had surrendered the certificate of practice, therefore he was not keeping the past record.

The report of the Disciplinary Committee is based on the accounting standards to be followed and breach thereof. Having not filed any response to the report of the Disciplinary Committee, and finding the report to be suffering from no infirmity, as did the Council accept the same, so do we. Indeed, the respondent is guilty of committing professional misconduct falling within clauses 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Part 1 of the 2nd Schedule to the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

Keeping in view the scam which has taken place and the seriousness of the indictment of the respondent we accept the recommendation of the Council and levy the penalty of removing the name of the respondent from the register of members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for a period of 5 years.

Full Text of the Operative Part of the Judgment is as follows :-

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