KPMG and Deloitte, auditors appointed to restate the financials of the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Systems, have found instances of `amateurish forgery’ in the account books of the IT firm that should have been easily detected by Price Waterhouse (PW).
These “amateurish forgeries” with regard to bank confirmation letters on Satyam’s fixed deposit receipts have come to light as the auditors began their forensic audit recently.
This coincides with the ICAI’s flip-flop over PWC’s role in the Satyam fraud and the CBI filing charge sheet against nine, including two jailed PW auditors.
A forensic investigator told Financial Chronicle, “While scrutinising various Satyam papers, we were surprised to find such instances of amateurish forgery — there were spelling mistakes, address not properly mentioned, common procedures not followed. There were ample opportunities to detect them.”
This investigator, requesting anonymity, said, “In some of the forged documents, even the name of the auditor was wrongly or incorrectly spelt, there were discrepancies in addresses. There were instances where forged confirmation statements from as many as five banks on Satyam FD receipts were not sent to the auditors directly.”
He said KPMG and Deloitte would now get into the details of the Maytas deal with all facts and figures.
“In this case also, the two firms will be applying tools of forensic audit to get to the truth. True, the whole process is taking some time but this is being done only to ensure that no questions are raised afterwards,” he said.
Meanwhile, Price Waterhouse stuck to their stand that their partners engaged in the Satyam audit had been victims of the fraud and expressed surprise and disappointment over the CBI charge sheet against these two partners.
“Price Waterhouse India is surprised and disappointed that the Central Bureau of Investigation has pressed charges against the two partners who worked on the audit of Satyam’s financial statements,” a statement from the firm said.
“Precise information on the specific charges against the two partners is awaited.” it added. “The ICAI has very recently publicly confirmed that Satyam’s former CFO has made it clear to them that neither partner had anything to do with the fraud at Satyam.”
