ICAI chairman Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal has revealed that the institute’s disciplinary committee is still probing into alleged audit lapses at edtech giant BYJU’S
BYJU’s trial with the apex CA body dates back to 2022 when the latter began probing its inappropriate financial disclosures in November
Justifying the delay in concluding the probe, Agarwal said the institute’s investigation into BYJU’S involves several steps
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) chairman Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal has revealed that the institute’s disciplinary committee is still probing alleged audit lapses at edtech giant BYJU’S, more than two years after ICAI opened the probe.
Agarwal justified the delay in concluding the investigation, saying that the institute’s investigation of BYJU’S
involves several steps. The investigation concerns alleged audit lapses in BYJU’S between FY21 and FY22.
The matter is currently being investigated by the ICAI disciplinary committee, the president told reporters at a press briefing in Delhi. “The Disciplinary Board can accept or reject the directorate’s prima facie statement. They are currently looking into this matter,” Business Standard quoted him as saying.
BYJUS try the apex CA body goes back to 2022 when the latter began investigating its improper financial disclosures in November. Accordingly, ICAI has referred the case to its Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) in February 2023.
A year later, the board was about to release its report on the audit process for the embattled edtech giant. “FRRB is working on it. It is under processing,” Agarwal said in February 2024.
Agarwal then said that the body has found gross negligence in BYJUS’ audit processes. “Our inspection has found gross negligence in the accounting practices of individual auditors of BYJU and therefore we have recommended to the Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) to take punitive action against the auditors concerned,” he said in March.
In his last financial informationBYJU’s consolidated net loss widened by 81% to INR 8,245.2 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 4,564.3 Cr in FY21. This staggering loss of close to $1 billion meant that BYJU’S was worse off than many thought.
As reported by Inc42 earlier this year, BYJU’s revenue for FY23 touched the INR 6,500 Cr mark, but the company’s net loss for the last two accounts is not clear.
While ICAI continues its extensive investigation into BYJU’s finances, the past year has seen it sink into deeper waters legally and monetarily. For starters, it year 2024 have included serious corporate governance crises and cases in Supreme Court, NCLT, NCLAT, ED, among others.
