ICAI Says Not Receiving Information from IL&FS, SFIO

ICAI Says Not Receiving Information from IL&FS, SFIO Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI onOctober 29 indicated that it is not receiving information from various agencies related to the IL&FS crisis. Last week, IL&FS has replied to ICAIs October 10 letter saying, its board led by chairman Uday Kotak had been granted protection by theNational Company Law Tribunal(NCLT) that superseded the earlier board and advised the audit regulator to withdraw its letter, sources said. A few days before that, SFIO had written to ICAI saying it was not the appropriate authority to share information. A senior ICAI official said the institute has written to various regulators and agencies seeking details about the IL&FS case but has not received the requisite information so far. While IL&FS could not be reached for comment, government officials said that ICAI had asked unnecessary questions related to investigations of auditors and had gone beyond its remit just to show that the other agencies were not cooperating. Next, they will ask CBI director to appear and share his findings. They seem to have asked several questions including the impact on the economy, said an official, requesting anonymity. On October 10, ICAI had written to IL&FS, informing that it had taken suo motu action to determine if the chartered accountants concerned had performed their services in line with the regulations. It had also enclosed a long questionnaire that included details of how the financial crisis took place, if there was diversion of funds, what was the modus operandi, what action was taken by the audit committee and the standard operating procedure for making investments. An ICAI functionary suggested that in several cases government agencies and companies often did not cooperate, resulting in investigations against auditors not getting completed. Last week, similar action was initiated against auditors of real estate firm, Amrapali, which has come under the Supreme Court scanner for alleged diversion of funds. Earlier this month, the government superseded the board of IL&FS and appointed a six-member board with Uday Kotak as the non-executive chairman. said. The crisis at Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) has rattled financial markets by sparking off concerns of liquidity crunch.