The South African audit firm concluded that certain senior executives,
"This resulted in profits in the respective years being overstated, and in the overstatement of certain assets in THL's financial statements," Tongaat Huletts claimed. The firm said it would institute civil action against the alleged culprits.
The PwC investigation also revealed that there were a number of governance failures pursuant to which internal policies, guidelines and frameworks were not followed, creating an environment in which "senior executives could initiate or participate in the financial reporting misstatements".
Other respondents cited in
In the application
"I therefore pray that the court declares the audit report null and void, and sets it aside in those respects that pertain to me," he said.
He said the fact that the audit was done at the instigation of
"Auditors went out of bounds and beyond what
"I further wish to state as a matter of fact that first and second never commissioned a forensic audit investigation into their affairs. I say this truly because of my position then as a board member of the two entities.
"In so imposing the audit, the third respondent violated the first and second respondents articles of association and extant provisions of the then Companies Act, which provided for companies to come up with rules on how such a process should be conducted."
He averred that the audit process and its subsequent findings must be nullified as a matter of law because it was undertaken by fourth and fifth respondents in violation of the Public Accounts and Auditors Act (Charpetr 27:12), which provides for prior registration in
"I aver that the auditors who undertook the audit process whose resultant report I am taking issue with herein were not registered here in
"The audit report was also sanctioned and commissioned by the third respondent in direct violation of the then operative Section 196 of the Companies Act (Cap 24:04) as read with Section 198 of the same act. The court is therefore praying to annul the audit report as it was done in disregard of extant legal instruments," read part of the application.
"I was never informed that I was under an audit process by the representative of the fourth and fifth respondents who questioned me regarding the bulk sugar sale at first respondent and an alleged buy back letter from BancABC.
"It remains anomalous for the auditor not to ask me to explain certain practices within an organisation, in particular first and second respondents, only to turn up attacking me on the same issues in the final report.
"Indeed, shocking as it is, I never commented nor clarified on all the issues ascribed to me as wrong doing, save for the brief comments I made to
"In its substance, the forensic audit report is grossly inaccurate and can easily pass off as a hatchet job meant to soil my name, career and reputation," he said.
Copyright The Herald. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source