audit the auditors?
I did my CA so long back that in those days flying was considered risky and sex was considered safe!
Well I did my articles in a firm called Sharp & Tannan. When our senior partner used to ‘finalise’ the accounts in his rather luxurious room WE have seen the clients sweat. He predicted the scam about 10 years before it actually happened! He gave up the extremely lucrative bank audit saying ‘they do not reconcile records properly…which means I do not know what I am signing’. 1980 or there abouts he gave up bank audits…scam happened in 1992.
Homi K Bilpodiwala of Sharp and Tannan had super high ethical standards…and the typical arrogance and style of a successful Parsi aristocrat! If he were in power ….well read on..the British law which is perhaps forcing them to do something…read on
iarab
One of the auditor in the “big four” audited the Indian company of our “mega scamster”, but got away without any punishment. I feel, the rightful place for the “partner” should have been the same cell, shared with the “King”.
sanjay
Hi iarab, why are you so shy of taking names of PwC and Satyam? 🙂
I think auditing has also become more like a government check where you can get away by bribing few people. And the people who are bribed will in the worst case just fired from the job. Those people have already got enough bribe to spend rest of life in much better lifestyle than all other employees. I think suspension/firing is not the solution, putting them in jail is right solution. If you prosecute few high-profile cases, corruption will become very less.
If wrongful auditors -against whom we have proof in paper -cannot be put in jail, then it is much difficult to put corrupt government officials – who don’t leave any paper trail -in jail .
What do you think, Subra?
subra
Reputation gets built over long periods of time. However in the Indian context (as internationally too) managing the media is becoming very important. There are people with fantastic reputations but when you hear about some of the things that they do – you would be shocked. So naming Satyam or PWC is easy – it means the others are clean! There is just too much dirt in private and public..!!