Sattaur angry over ICAG, ACCA probe against him

Oct 26, 2014 News

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Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur, is extremely disturbed over being questioned by the governing bodies for accountants in Guyana.
He is accusing the bodies of a very high level of collusion between members of the Council sub-committee who serve as disciplinary committee members of the local accountancy body and Glenn Lall, owner of the Kaieteur News.
A letter was issued to the Commissioner-General dated October 24, 2014 and signed by Ramesh Persaud as the Chairman of the Investigations Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana
(ICAG), for the Commissioner-General to respond to the allegations.
The disclosure was made after the Council was informed by the Disciplinary Committee   following a meeting which was held on October 22 to deliberate on the complaint made by Glenn Lall.  The complaint alleged misconduct on the part of Khurshid Sattaur, the Commissioner General.
This revelation comes one day after the Guyana Times carried an article in which the Commissioner-General claimed that he contacted the Institute and spoke with Cardilla Agard, the Administrative Officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana.
Sattaur said that the ICAG denied any knowledge of a meeting or decision taken on the matter even though Kaieteur News the very day, had carried a front page article referring to a decision taken to undertake a probe.
Sattaur said that what is extremely irregular and disturbing is the fact that the meeting of the Disciplinary Committee, which according to the letter had deliberations on October 22, had informed the Council of its decision presumably after the meeting was concluded.
Yet this information, according to Sattaur, appeared in the headlines of Kaieteur News of the very day— October 22 edition.
Sattaur said that this is a clear indication that the members of the said disciplinary subcommittee informed Glenn Lall of their decision prior to the meeting and deliberations of the Committee.
Sattaur asked, “The question for both the owner of Kaieteur News and the Members of the Disciplinary Committee of the ICAG is how is it possible for a media outlet to publish the decision by an independent investigative agency one day before it was actually made?
“Further how can the communication to the Commissioner-General be officially made two days after the Kaieteur News printed headlines of the decision when the owner of the newspaper is the complainant?”
Sattaur is also questioning how is it that he is being subjected to disciplinary proceedings by the Council’s Disciplinary Committee when he is not engaged in public practice and therefore not subject to the ethics that professional accountants subscribe to.
He said that he is a public servant and carries out a statutory function prescribed in law.
He said that this suggests extreme bias and lack of knowledge of their own bylaws.
Sattaur, in his letter, is calling on the Council to “stop this charade and travesty immediately.”
He said that a report is “presently being compiled that will be lodged with the ICAG parent body in the UK pertaining to the highly irregular actions on the part of the members of the local Disciplinary body. Clippings of the newspaper article and letter stating the council’s decision made on the very same day will be submitted as evidence.”
Sattaur intends to write the ACCA parent body in the UK asking for an investigation to be conducted into ”this obvious collusion with the owner of the Kaieteur News to discredit the good name and standing of an outstanding FCA member.”
“It would appear also that some of these members may be aiding and abetting the Kaieteur News’ alleged reckless behaviour of fraudulent reporting of income and have now joined forces with the newspaper owner to have the Commissioner-General’s image tarnished with the hopeful consequence that the audit against Lall will not proceed.”
Sattaur, who said that he has nothing to hide, is making a lot of noise about the probe by ICAG.
He now says that he cannot submit himself to an investigation for a very serious offence by a panel comprising  Paul Chan a Sue,  Khalid Ali and the chairman, Ramesh Persaud.
Sattaur added that to avoid any investigation against him he will have his lawyers consider the possible sanction of the very people who are to investigate him.
He also wants to report what he called their “highly unethical and immoral conduct to their Parent body in the UK for serious misconduct and malpractice and for bringing the noble profession into disrepute.”
He made it clear that he wants to avoid any investigation at all cost.
The Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall simply said, “Let the public read the emails. Sattaur is unfit for the office he holds. And he is a liar.”

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