DHFL – The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has imposed monetary penalties of Rs 5 lakh each and debarred two statutory auditors for periods ranging from five to ten years in a new action against the auditors of the former Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd.
In a recent order, the NFRA dismissed the show-cause notice issued to CA Amit Vinay Chaturvedi, partner of Chaturvedi and Shah LLP, who was the engagement quality control review partner for all of DHFL’s statutory audits in 2017-18, and barred him from working as an auditor, internal auditor, or performing any audit work for five years, along with a Rs 5 lakh fine.
Following an investigation, the NFRA found him guilty of professional misconduct and failure to meet relevant auditing standards requirements.
In another similar order, the NFRA dismissed the show cause notice issued to CA Jignesh Mehta, partner of Chaturvedi and Shah, who was the engagement partner for the statutory audit of DHFL in 2017-18, and imposed a Rs 5 lakh fine and barred him for ten years.
DHFL
The NFRA found the EP guilty of professional misconduct in its order, noting that he failed to discharge his statutory duty of completing branch audits, which was a key requirement of the Companies Act, 2013, in the completion of the audit of the company’s financial statements for 2017-18.
The NFRA, which was established in 2018, is the statutory body in charge of monitoring and enforcing compliance with auditing and accounting standards, as well as overseeing the quality of service provided by the professions involved in ensuring compliance with such standards. The NFRA has the authority of a civil court.
Following media reports on the alleged misappropriation of approximately Rs 31,000 crore in public funds by the directors of DHFL, the NFRA initiated an audit quality review of the statutory audit of DHFL performed by Shah and Chaturvedi in 2017-18.
Previously, the NFRA issued a number of orders against DHFL auditors who performed branch audits and other audit work.
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