THE ACCOUNTANCY regulator has spent €1.6 million to date inquiring into the behaviour of members in Anglo Irish Bank in the period running up to its collapse.
The Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (Carb) appointed a special investigator – former comptroller and auditor general John Purcell – to enquire into events at the bank and the conduct of a firm and individuals in relation to the failed lender.
In its annual report, Carb refers to the Purcell investigation as one of the two key elements of its work last year.
It notes that formal complaints were forwarded to Carb’s disciplinary committee on the basis of prima facie cases against four members. These included former Anglo chief executives Sean FitzPatrick and David Drumm. The other members cited were Willie McAteer and Peter Fitzpatrick, former finance directors respectively at Anglo Irish and Irish Life Permanent, which supported Anglo with €7 billion in short-term deposits in 2008.
However, plans for public disciplinary hearings have been postponed at the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A separate inquiry into the behaviour of Anglo auditor Ernst Young is the subject of a legal challenge.
Carb has also initiated a review of the 2008 audits of the financial institutions covered by the government guarantee of September 2009, which it says has achieved “significant progress”.
On a more prosaic level, the regulator oversaw the inspection of 172 accountancy practices during the year. It processed 98 complaints – down from 102 in 2009 – during the year, of which 15 were referred to its disciplinary committee.
The number of accountants in Ireland rose by more than 1,200 last year, according to the report. Including 730 retired members, Carb membership was 20,010 compared to 18,802 a year earlier.
