1. Abstract:
Corporate governance loosely refers to the whole system of rights, processes and controls established
internally and externally over the management of a business entity with the objective of protecting the
interests of its stakeholders. At the most basic level, it can be described as the processes by which
investors and stakeholders attempt to minimize the transaction costs and agency costs associated with
doing business within a company. To do so the principal prerequisite is to have a clear, transparent and
true picture of the company’s financial affairs. This has been achieved by the process of auditing,
however willful or negligence in auditing process has led to disastrous consequences. Satyam scam has
been the greatest scam in the history of corporate world of the India. Satyam is the fourth largest IT
Company in India. The CEO of the company Ramlinga Raju has made a scam of around $2 billion. There
has been a lot of controversy regarding the misuse of the post by the CEO of the company. The fake
number of jobs which was shown by the CEO was an abuse of power and it was a clear violation of the
prevailing laws in India. This gives the impression that in India the power and position is what matters
and the people in the top position make a clear violation of the rights provided to them. This scam has
seriously affected the corporate bodies in India. Hence auditing has an important place in the hierarchy
of ideal corporate governance structure. This paper will focus on the role of auditors, liability of auditors
in satyam scam, appointment and remuneration of auditors, standard of care and skill that auditor should
maintain and auditor as gate-keeper to the finance of the company. Last but not the least I am hopeful
that if the recommendations as proposed by me are implemented then transparency is bound to increase
and would have a domino effect on corporate governance, thus by governing the auditors we may insure
that corporate governance as a whole receive a fillip.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 10
Keywords: corporate governance, duties of auditors, independence of auditors, liability of auditors, Irani
Committee Report
working papers series
