Category : Institute In Nepal
Posted By : thehimalayantimes
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| Institute In Nepal |
The chartered accountants (CAs) have resumed their work from Tuesday following the authorities’ reaffirmation that any kind of accounting transgression will first be prosecuted by the accounting regulator — Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN). After two-and-half-month long protest, agitating Association of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ACAN) and Auditors Association of Nepal (Audan) have withdrawn further programmes. The meeting held yesterday between the associations, Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), ICAN and Ministry of Finance have reached a three-point understanding, prompting the agitating professionals to pull back.
The accounting professionals had been demonstrating since January and had stopped doing books of the insurance companies since January 17. They had further stopped preparing or checking balance sheets of other companies as well from February 26. They have been protesting against the actions of CIB to arrest and prosecute two CAs connected with the fraud case of Everest Insurance Company back in December, 2013. “Although, all our demands were not met, all parties concerned have come to an understanding, so we have resumed our responsibilities from today,” informed Bharat Rijal, president of ACAN.
The authorities have agreed that the primary right to take action or investigate any wrongdoings by an auditor or a CA while preparing or certifying a balance sheet will fall on ICAN. The other authorities such as police and court will only be involved based on ICAN’s recommendation, as per Nepal Chartered Accountants Act 2053. “We agree that transgressors have to be punished, but accounting is complicated and technical, so we have been stating that only ICAN has the technical capacity to investigate these cases,” pointed out Rijal. As the associations have come to an understanding, the plans to padlock ICAN’s office premise from April 20 have been dismissed.
The accountants have been demanding the state to withdraw the case against two accused CAs in Everest Insurance case — Gopal Kumar Agrawal and Jagadish Agrawal — calling their detention as being against Nepal Chartered Accountants Act, which gives ICAN the primary authority to investigate accounting frauds. The cases could not be thrown out as the police had filed a single case against the accused CAs and other accused officials of the insurance company for abating fraud worth more than Rs 200 million. Due to the protest, many companies have been unable to get their balance sheet audited and prepare annual report, which has delayed large numbers of annual general meetings. Even stock market listed companies have been affected, as only half of the listed companies have been able to hold AGMs.
Source:thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Accountants+resume+work%E2%80%9A+withdraw+protest&NewsID=410487
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