Coppertech audit firm Ahmad and Akhtar loses licence for not cooperating in ICAB review

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh or ICAB has decided not to renew the licence of audit firm Ahmad and Akhtar for not cooperating in review of alleged anomalies in accounts of Coppertech Industries Limited.

Ahmad and Akhtar will not be able to audit any listed or non-listed company from now on, ICAB President AF Nesaruddin told the media after the decision on the audit firm was unanimously agreed in a meeting on Thursday.

ICAB had asked Ahmad and Akhtar for information to review Coppertech’s financial statement after the Financial Reporting Council asked the institute to check the allegations of anomalies in Coppertech’s accounts.

“But they (Ahmad and Akhtar) did not cooperate with us. So, as the primary regulator, we’ve taken punitive action against them,” Nesaruddin said, adding that ICAB sent letters to the audit firm four times for the necessary papers.

The audit firm gave different excuses all the time, he said.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange or DSE recently halted the listing of Coppertech pending an investigation into the alleged anomalies in its financial statement.

The company raised Tk 200 million from the stock market after the SEC approved its initial public offering or IPO in December last year. It has got listed on Chittagong Stock Exchange or CSE, but trading has not started.

It will be unprecedented for Bangladesh’s stock market if Coppertech finally fails to get DSE listing and if it returns money to the investors.

No company in Bangladesh has ever before returned money of the investors even though many firms with existence on paper only had drawn money from the market by providing false information.

Nesaruddin said Ahmad and Akhtar, which audited Coppertech, is also the first audit firm to lose its licence in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday banned Ahmad and Akhtar from auditing listed companies.