stopped Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) from appointing him member of 11 of its 41 non-standing committees for the year 2009-10. The appointments were made last week after a new president - Uttam Agarwal - took over on February 5.
The committees to which Gopalakrishnan has been appointed include that on internal audit standards - which reviews internal audit practices in the country -- the expert advisory committee, and the assurance and auditing standards board, that reviews existing and emerging auditing practices worldwide, among others.
Agarwal confirmed to TOI that he had indeed appointed Gopalakrishnan to the committees but argued that "until the charges against Gopalakrishnan are not established in the court of law and as long as he continues to be member of the central council of ICAI, he has to be included in some committees." He asserted that the jailed auditor had not been given the chairmanship of any committee.
Several chartered accountants told TOI that Gopalakrishnan's appointment was not just "disappointing but also unethical". A senior CA said: "Apart from being under scrutiny for the Satyam fiasco, ICAI itself has pointed fingers of suspicion towards Gopalakrishnan's involvement in the Global Trust Bank case. To then appoint him member of so many important committees is rather disgraceful."
Interestingly, the new ICAI chief who was on Hyderabad on Febraury 6 - the day after he took over - wanted to visit Chanchalguda jail to call on Gopalkrishnan and Talluri. " The jail authorities had given me permission but I could not make it eventually," Agarwal told TOI.
16 Feb 2009, 0013 hrs IST, Sudipta Sengupta, TNN
HYDERABAD: Tainted Price Waterhouse partner S Gopalakrishnan may be in jail for his alleged involvement in the Satyam fraud, but that hasn't
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