Deloitte, KPMG are new joint auditors for Satyam

New Delhi, Jan 14 (IANS) The newly appointed three-member board of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Wednesday appointed Deloitte and KPMG as the new joint auditors for the company in place of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The development was confirmed by Deepak Parekh, one of the board members of the beleaguered firm, which is going through turbulent times following the admission of a Rs.70 billion ($1.43 billion) fraud by its founder and former chairman B. Ramalinga Raju.

The board comprises Parekh, chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC), Kiran Karnik, former president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, and C. Achuthan, former member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the markets watchdog.

KMPG and Deloitte, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst and Young, form the big four of global audit firms.

The inability of PricewaterhouseCoopers in detecting the major scam came under scrutiny with state investigation agencies Tuesday conducting a raid on its premises at the upscale Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, also the headquarters of Satyam.

The markets regulator is also probing the role of the former auditors in the scam. A team of SEBI officials had also checked the records of the firm in Hyderabad last week.