Be sure of CAs you appoint: ICAI tells companies

Accounting regulator ICAI has asked companies to find out whether the auditors they plan to appoint have the institute's membership, since there are various cases of people allegedly masquerading as CAs among over 200 matters of violation of the CA Act pending in courts.

"The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) will not be able to take any action against CAs in case they are not members of the institute," ICAI President Uttam Prakash Agarwal told PTI.

Agarwal stressed that unless the managements of companies tread cautiously, auditors indulging in malpractices cannot be nailed.

"We can take action only against those CAs who are our members. We cannot take any action against those who are CAs but not our members," Agarwal added.

He said there are 220 cases in various courts where non-chartered accountants had been masquerading as CAs and had signed the financial statements of companies.

Though the institute had received complaints in this regard, it could not take action against the erring people as they were not members of the ICAI, he added.

     

There are 19 cases of impersonation pending in courts, and 66 instances of impersonation and alleged forged use of signatures or seals of CAs, he said.