Found gross negligence by Byju’s auditors: ICAI President

Chartered accountants’ apex body ICAI has “found gross negligence on the part of the auditors” of the nowcrippled edutech firm Byju’s, said its president Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday.

“Our inspection has found gross negligence on accounting practices by individual auditors of Byju’s and accordingly we have recommended to the Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) to take punitive actions on auditors concerned,” said Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal, the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

“The FRRB will review our report on the conduct of the auditors of Byju’s both individually as well as at the group levels, apart from the role of the board of the company. After this threestage review will form an opinion on the role of the individual auditors and take appropriate action. After that, the report will be made public.”

STATUTORY AUDITORS

For long, the international auditing major Deloitte was the statutory auditors of Byju’s. However, as the financial trouble mounted at the edutech major, it resigned midway in June 2023, citing a long delay in preparation of the financial statement of the company for FY22.

Following the resignation of Deloitte, Byju’s appointed another global firm BDO as its new auditors. BDO’s audit arm is MSKA & Associates.

“In cases of gross negligence, which we have found in the case of Byju’s auditors, we will proceed with further investigation. If there are minor issues, we provide advisory guidance,” Agarwal said at a function organised by industry body CII.