The restriction on auditors has increased manifold after the Satyam episode. While there have been some lapses, all of them cannot be attributed to auditors, according to S  Santhanakrishnan, Chairman, Corporate Laws & Corporate Governance Committee, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India,

Speaking on the Companies Act 2013 at the two-day national Conference on Corporate Laws on Friday, he said that the new Companies Law was certainly more challenging for audit professionals.

“This act is going to have maximum amount of legal cases coming up,” he said, as he elaborated on the impact and changes of this act. He also spoke about auditing Corporate Social Responsibility and electronic voting used by the board of directors.

Over 500 chartered accountants from various parts of the country attended this conference hosted by the Southern India Regional Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.   Earlier in the day, the conference was inaugurated by Justice V Ramasubramaniam, Judge, Madras High Court.

In his inaugural address Justice V Ramasubramaniam lauded the ICAI for imparting value-based education and said that the ethical side of any profession was most important. Those practising the profession should keep in mind the larger interests of society, he said.

Prasanna Kumar, chairman of SIRC of ICAI, V Murali, vice-chairman and Arul Oli, secretary were present at the inauguration.

Eminent persons from the CA profession like N P Sarda, Nilesh Shivji Vikamsey and V Pattabhi Ram delivered lectures on the first day of the conference.    Columnist S Gurumurthy will address the accountants on the role of professionals in detection and prevention of frauds and corporate failures on Saturday. (New Indian Express)