PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC’s) global chief executive officer Samuel A DiPiazza Jr, who arrived here yesterday to take stock of the situation arising from the Price Waterhouse (the Indian audit arm of PwC) involvement in the Rs 7,000 crore Satyam fraud case, today met Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Prem Chand Gupta.
A Price Waterhouse statement said: “We can confirm that Samuel A DiPiazza Jr, chief executive officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers International, met Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta today.”
However, the audit firm declined to divulge further information. “It would be inappropriate to comment on a private meeting,” said the PW statement. MCA officials did not respond to calls made to them despite repeated attempts.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a special agency within the MCA, is investigating the Satyam case and the role played by external auditors is one of the angles the agency is looking into. It is expected to submit the report by April this year.
Yesterday, a PwC spokesperson had said DiPiazza is here to discuss the situation in detail and to offer support to the firm in India. Price Waterhouse has also been issued a show-cause notice by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for its auditors’ role in falsifying the Satyam account books. Incidentally, Price Waterhouse has to send its response to ICAI by tomorrow (January 30).
DiPiazza did not meet any ICAI official today. ICAI president Ved Jain and his successor Uttam P Aggarwal are travelling outside India.
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It is not known whether DiPiazza met any Indian client, as assignments might come up for renewal at the end of this financial year.
DiPiazza’s visit coincides with Price Waterhouse suspending two of its partners, S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, who were the statutory auditors of Satyam Computers and were arrested last week by the Andhra Pradesh police on charges of colluding with the IT firm in fudging the accounts.
PW’s assurance leader Thomas Mathew has also stepped down though he had no connection with the audit work of Satyam. “In light of the present situation, he, however, believes it would be appropriate for him to relinquish his management position,” said a PW statement issued two days back.