Though  it is very clear that Ramalinga Raju had managed to cook the books of Satyam to a figure of Rs. 7,800 crores, the fact remains that the top auditing firm PriceWaterhouse saw no fraud in the IT company’s accounts during 2007-08. The Chartered accountants body, ICAI on Saturday issued showcause notice to auditor Price Waterhouse on its role in vetting Satyam’s accounts.

The ICAI President, Mr Ved Jain on Saturday said the showcause notice has been issued and Price Waterhouse has been asked to reply within 21 days. Price Waterhouse has maintained that it followed applicable audit standards and went audit evidence provide d by the company.

The auditor’s report, signed on April 21, 2008, by Price Waterhouse partner Srinivas Talluri, said: “… We have neither come across any instance of fraud on or by the company (Satyam), noticed or reported during the year, nor we have been informed of such case by the management.”

Meanwhile, PwC did not reply to queries whether its global CEO Samuel A DiPiazza cancelled his scheduled visit to India from Saturday in the wake of the audit arm’s involvement in the Satyam scam.

The auditor’s report also said: “These (Satyam’s) financial statements are the responsibilities of the company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit.

“We conducted our audit in accordance with the auditing standards generally accepted in India. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatments,” it said.

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