The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has slapped penalties totalling Rs 1.6 crore on an audit firm and two auditors for professional misconduct and auditing lapses in Reliance Home Finance for FY 2018-19.
NFRA penalises 3 auditors
A fine of Rs 1 crore has been levied on audit firm Dhiraj & Dheeraj, Rs 50 lakh on Piyush Patni and Rs 10 lakh on Pawan Kumar Gupta. Both Patni and Gupta are partners of the Mumbai-based audit firm Dhiraj & Dheeraj.
Besides, the regulator has also barred Patni and Gupta for a period of 5 years and 3 years, respectively, from being appointed as auditors or from undertaking any audit in respect of financial statements or internal audit of any company or body corporate.
Patni was the Engagement Partner (EP) and Gupta was the Engagement Quality Control Review Partner (EQCR) for the statutory audit of Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) for 2018-19.
Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP (PW) was initially appointed as the auditor of RHFL for 2018-19. However, PW resigned from the audit in June 2019, without issuing an audit report for FY19.
Further, PW reported suspected fraud regarding loans amounting…
