Chartered accountants and auditing firms in the country – especially the big four – are in the spotlight for their transgressions that have largely gone unnoticed. Now that the government has introduced the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) under the Companies Act, 2013, CA firms and CAs can be investigated. A special report on the government's determination to hold auditors accountable and the tightening of the regulatory framework.
“CA is an arrangement in which the human resource development is done only by you. The curriculum is made by you only; you conduct the exam; rules and regulations are also made by you, and your institute only punishes the culprits.” “Now the question arises that the temple of democracy i.e. the Parliament of India, which is the voice of 125 crore countrymen, has given you so much authority, then why is it that in the last 11 years, only 25 charted accountants have been prosecuted? Did only 25 people make a mess? And I have heard that more than 1,400 cases are still pending for many years now. A single case takes years to settle…”
That was Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his foundation-day speech on July 1, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Since that scorching indictment of the ICAI, the government has moved slowly but relentlessly to tell the CAs of their transgressions and the old boys club that the ICAI had become over the years.
In the United States, the Enron Financial scandal was enough to bring the shutters down on Arthur Andersen and Company. That’s how ruthlessly tough regulators were in that country. A milder form of that toughness is now evident in the Indian marketplace.
The problem, however, is the inordinate delay taken by the justice system to deliver its verdict. Take the Satyam scam for example. Its timeline is telling:
• The Satyam scandal was India’s biggest accounting fraud when it was unearthed in January 2009.
• Handled by the SFIO, it submitted a report in April that year that pointed towards the falsification of accounts. It was outlined that two Price Waterhouse auditors were part of the cover-up.
• The Supreme Court asked that the trial in the matter be completed by July 31, 2011.
• The special CBI court’s final verdict came six years after the fraud on April 9, 2015,
Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Legal Notes.
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Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Legal Notes.
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Time For Action
Since time immemorial, the environment has had a larger-than-life place in the Indian scheme of things. But the Nineties and the new century have really been a sad story of a virtually unending line of laws failing to combat the increasing levels of pollution brought forth by urbanisation, and the global pressure about greenhouse emissions resulting in the Paris accord that now brings in its wake greater pressure on countries to tighten laws. Amidst all this, India shines as a classic example of the irrational mindset of enacting more laws to produce less pollution. RACHANA RANA BHATTACHARYA, while examining the dizzying number of laws that engulf us and the incredulously lopsided judicial pronouncements made by different courts, poses a simple question: What is the way forward?
Who's Responsible For Fukushima?
Even as the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to haunt a section of the Japanese people and the world, a Japanese Court’s decision to acquit the nuclear power company, TEPCO’s bosses after three years of trial, raises questions over the use of nuclear power for energy needs.
Tata, Bye-Bye?
What would one choose between their right to vote in local body elections and to receive world class civic amenities? The answer isn’t as simple as it looks. Jamshedpur — the land of the Tatas has been struggling with this question for the last 30 years and looks like they still haven’t found an answer. Maintained by the Tatas, there has been a steady incline in the number of voices demanding a government operated municipality to take over the town. In the midst of consecutive orders by various High Courts, the Supreme Court and clashing opinions, SHWETA MENON in her visit to the steel city found that the majority verdict by the janta remains in favour of the Tatas.
No Winners In The Opioid Case
Pain can make you rich and the opioid issue in the US is testimony to that. But other than the wealth it spawned, opioid has generated a huge number of legal cases in the US – and quite a few of them have been filed by the states. Will the Sacklers, one of the richest families in the US and the makers of the pain-relieving drug OxyContin, go scot free?
J&-K A Jumble Of Laws
The transition of Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a Union Territory hasn’t been an easy one.
Tourism Of A Different Kind
Is settlement tourism making the situation worse in the disputed West Bank region? That is a question that remains to be answered. Despite Airbnb changing course on its earlier decision to ban listings for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the legal battle continues.
Another Toothless Commission!
There was a walkout by the opposition, protests were staged across the capital, activists were shoved into police vans, letters were written to the President urging him to not sign the amendment and yet the central government was finally able to hit a six in its second attempt this year to amend the RTI (Right to Information) Act!
Labour's “Decent Life” Dreams Continue
“Every moving The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 made it a point to inform the Members of the Rajya Sabha that the government had accepted 17 out of the 24 recommendations made by the Standing Committee which had scrutinised a similar bill introduced in the previous Lok Sabha.
Article 370 - The Albatross Around The Neck
Considered an ‘albatross around the neck’ by the present BJP government at the centre, the sudden and surprising abrogation of Article 370 has opened the doors to a flood of emotions. The abrogation will be debated and tested in the Supreme Court, but it seems that the move has already won in the peoples’ court.
UAPA Amendment: Need Of The Hour
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019, which has received the Presidential assent after being passed in both the Houses of Parliament in the just-concluded session, empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to designate an individual as a “terrorist”.
