The chartered accountants regulator ICAI on Thursday said KMPG cannot audit Satyam's [Get Quote] books, but the global auditor said it does not require to register with the regulator to restate the IT company's accounts. "KPMG is not allowed to practice in India... they are not registered with us," ICAI president Ved Jain said, while cautioning scam-tainted Satyam against going ahead with this auditor.
Satyam's new board has mandated KPMG and Deloitte to restate the company's financial statements, after founder Ramalinga Raju admitted cooking of accounts to inflate profits and create fictitious assets.
The Satyam fiasco: Complete coverage
Reacting to ICAI's caveat, KPMG said: "It is our understanding that the scope of work (at Satyam) to be finalised is not reserved for CAs registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India."
"We are working with the new board of Satyam Computer. The scope of work and terms of reference are being discussed with a view to their finalisation," a KPMG spokesperson said.
KPMG and Deloitte were brought in on Wednesday even as Satyam's bookkeeper Price Waterhouse said that its audit of the IT company's accounts may be unreliable given Raju's admission of a financial fraud running into thousands of crores of rupees.
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