The Complaints Committee of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (CARB), the body established by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) to regulate its members, has announced the appointment of Mr. John Purcell, former Comptroller and Auditor General, as its Special Investigator into the issues concerning directors loans and other matters at Anglo Irish Bank, to investigate possible breaches of ICAI Bye-Laws and rules of professional conduct by its members/member firms and specifically:
- (a) Certain loans made by the Bank to Mr. Sean Fitzpatrick, a director of the Bank (and a member of the Institute), and actions taken by him in relation to such loans in the years prior to the disclosure of same by Mr. Fitzpatrick in 2008 and the treatment of same in the financial statements of the Bank and the subsequent resignations of Mr. Sean Fitzpatrick and Mr. David Drumm and Mr. William McAteer, being two other directors of the Bank and each being a member of the Institute; and
- (b) The performance of the Bank’s auditors, Ernst & Young, a member firm of the Institute, in connection with the audit of the accounts of the Bank in relation to the said loans to Mr. Fitzpatrick in the years prior to the disclosure of same by Mr. Fitzpatrick.
The appointment of a Special Investigator follows from the determination of the Complaints Committee at its meeting in January 2009 that the issues under consideration constituted a matter of public concern as per Bye-Law 71 of the ICAI Bye-Laws.
The Complaints Committee is considering separately the involvement of ICAI members in issues raised concerning certain transactions between Anglo Irish Bank plc and companies in the Irish Life and Permanent Group.