PWC's Big Move Away From Audit

Setting up PwC India as a cutting-edge technology company is the legacy chairman Deepak Kapoor wants to leave.

- Ashish Gupta

PUBLIC MEMORY MAY BE notoriously short sometimes, but at others, it’s inconveniently long. Remember Satyam Computer Services and the case of falsified accounts that rocked the country back in 2009? Even those who don’t remember the finer points of the case (and face it, few knew the finer points even then), do remember that Satyam’s auditors, the legendary PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India, ignored all the warning signs and allowed the false accounts out. It took the 140-year-old company a long time to come out of the slump caused by the Satyam scandal.

Two of its auditors were jailed, and the company had to shell out $7.5 million (Rs 51 crore) to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for clearing incorrect accounts. Chairman Deepak Kapoor, then managing partner, had been in the thick of things. He says Satyam “was indeed one of the biggest challenges PwC faced as a brand and it affected its reputation”. But PwC India insiders point out that the company swung into action immediately to control the fallout, and ensured there was almost no attrition or client exodus in the aftermath of Satyam.