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Spotlight at Adani Group after Deloitte quits as ports auditor: ‘Has it resigned because…?’
Deloitte Haskins & Sells' resignation as auditor of Adani Port raises questions about financial management at the conglomerate.
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The resignation of Deloitte Haskins & Sells as auditor of the Adani Ports has brought fresh scrutiny of the financial management at the conglomerate led by billionaire Gautam Adani. Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmaker Priyanka Chaturvedi wondered whether the auditor resigned because of the refusal of the Adani Group for an independent external investigation into some of the allegations levelled by US short-seller Hindenburg Research.
“So has Deloitte & Haskins resigned because the Adani Group of Companies refused independent external investigation of allegations in the Hindenburg Report?” Chaturvedi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Deloitte has been the auditor of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) since 2017. In July 2022, it was given another five-year term.
The resignation comes weeks after Deloitte raised concern over certain transactions flagged in the report of Hindenburg Research. In May flagged, the auditor flagged three transactions, including recoveries from a contractor identified in the Hindenburg report, in issuing a qualified opinion on the accounts of APSEZ.
Confirming the auditor's resignation, APSEZ said, “In Deloitte's recent meeting with APSEZ management and its Audit Committee, Deloitte indicated a lack of a wider audit role as auditors of other listed Adani portfolio companies. The Audit Committee was of the view that the grounds advanced by Deloitte for resignation as Statutory Auditor were not convincing or sufficient to warrant such a move.”
The resignation puts a fresh spotlight on the management of Adani’s empire just days before the marker regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is due to submit the results of a probe into Hindenburg’s wide-ranging allegations of accounting fraud and market manipulation.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who has been posing questions to the government over the allegations against Adani Group, cited Deloitte's resignation and said, “When statutory auditors repeatedly quit, you know that things are not as they are projected.”
In a statement, Ramesh alleged, "Shady transactions by the PM's favourite business group are reportedly leading Deloitte Haskins and Sells to take the unusual step of resigning as auditor for Adani Ports and SEZ".
Adani Ports has appointed MSKA & Associates as its statutory auditors effective from August 12 until the date of its next annual general meeting to be held in 2024, the company said in a filing.
