Information sought on multinational accounting cos

Against the backdrop of multi-crore Satyam fraud, the accounting regulator ICAI has sought information from 150 chartered accountant firms, including multi-national corporations, to see whether they circumvented laws while providing auditing services in the country.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has written to 150 firms seeking information on various issues including on agreement or contract for usage of name of multinational entity, corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid said in the Lok Sabha.

With regard to Satyam scam, he said the ICAI has constituted a fact-finding committee to look into the entire gamut of financial reporting, accounting, auditing aspects and suggest changes wherever required for the purpose of making appropriate recommendations to government, Securities and Exchange Board of India and other regulators.

"The fact-finding process is on and once the committee submits its report to the ministry, we shall take appropriate steps," he said.

The ICAI wanted to know the arrangement for sharing of fees/profit with other Indian CA firms with similar/identical name and with the multinational entity.

He said that the multinational firms came here through an automatic route under the foreign direct investment guidelines.

"We are collecting the information and once it is collected we shall analyse it," he said. Khurshid informed the House that out of 150 firms, 76 have given their documents while others are yet to submit.