The accounting regulator, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has urged the government on centralising the procedure for the allotment of auditors. The institute is of the view that auditors should be appointed by a regulator since the management presents the accounts and is an interested party.
ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal told, “In order to maintain independence in the allotment procedure of auditors, there should be a centralised system of allotment of auditors. There is a need for the appointment process of the auditors to be handled by a regulator and the regulator should imply it for all players.”
ICAI’s statement is in the context of the private players and the public sector banks that are free to appoint their own auditors. In March, ICAI had approached the finance ministry and RBI seeking a reversal of their decision of liberalising the process of allotment of the statutory branch auditors by PSBs.
ICAI had recently opposed the Maharashtra government’s decision that allowed the certified auditors who are non-chatered accounts to conduct the audit of trusts of any size. “We have recently requested the Maharashtra government to restore the audit limit of the certified auditors back to Rs 1 lakh,” said Agarwal.
Agarwal also feels that there is a need to fix a standardised fee for the auditors with the consultation of the ICAI council representatives. Agarwal further said that ICAI wants there should be 100% reliability of the audit procedure.
