“倒签”审计底稿日期！“四大”某记5位合伙人被罚

据《环球邮报》2024年3月22日报道，加拿大安大略省注册会计师指控德勤加拿大五名合伙人在审计工作底稿上伪造日期和时间戳，近期双方已达成和解，五名合伙人将受到处罚。

自去年10月对德勤实施制裁以来，安大略省特许专业会计师和会计师事务所监管机构首次针对德勤个人员工采取行动。德勤同意支付159万加拿大元（约合人民币841万元）了结此事（详见《四大某记竟篡改电脑日期“倒签”！和解协议公布...》）。

而与这五位合伙人达成的和解协议要求每人支付2万加拿大元的罚款，以及2万加拿大元的调查费用。和解协议还详细说明了德勤在2019年8月对这五位合伙人采取的内部纪律处分，但没有一项描述表明有人被停职、降职或解雇。其中三人仍留在公司，还有一人在领英上称自己“退休”。《环球邮报》无法确定第五名合伙人目前的就业状况。

具体来看，Nancy Ewings自1995年加入德勤，当时是德勤安大略省私人审计业务的副主管，至今仍是合伙人。

Steven Lawrenson, 1991年加入德勤，目前负责安大略省西南部的上市公司审计业务。

Stacy Levac自2016年加入德勤，在渥太华办公室专门为私营公司从事审计工作。他于2022年6月离开德勤，记者无法联系到他请其置评。

Ratan Ralliaram自1993年以来一直在德勤工作，2017年至2019年期间担任GTA审计财务团队负责人，目前仍是德勤的合伙人。

Mervyn Ramos2002年加入德勤，曾担任EQCR合伙人，为金融服务行业的客户服务。他于2023年6月离开德勤，并在领英(LinkedIn)个人资料中称自己“退休”。

德勤加拿大公司审计和鉴证管理合伙人Susan Bennett拒绝回答有关员工个人纪律的问题，称这是“机密”。她表示“我们坚持最高的专业标准，这些和解协议解决了此前安大略省注册会计师协会的指控。我们已经采取了相当重要和积极的措施，我们相信与个人达成的和解协议应该是这个过程的最后一步。”

在公开和解文件中，安大略省注册会计师协会表示，2019年9月，德勤告知监管机构，其在安大略省的约25名合伙人和专业人员更改了许多审计工作底稿的签署日期，签字日期与实际工作发生的日期不同。

监管机构的调查人员随后发现，有35名德勤注册会计师在2016年11月至2018年5月期间参与了日期倒签，主要是通过手动更改计算机上的日期来绕过内部控制。

加拿大的审计标准要求会计师保持准确、及时的文件，以证实独立审计报告的可靠性。这些标准要求审计工作底稿必须签字确认，以标记过程中每个步骤的完成。

德勤的内部调查最终得出的结论是，倒签“并非出于恶意或欺诈意图，而是为了更准确地反映工作实际进行的日期”。

德勤和五名合伙人在协议中表示，他们认可安大略省注册会计师协会和解协议中的事实和结论，不过仅“仅出于此次诉讼目的”。据安大略省注册会计师协会和Bennett女士称，德勤认为没有必要撤回与五位合伙人的倒签有关的任何审计报告。

作为纪律处分的一部分，德勤要求所有五家合伙人都参加培训。

在安大略省注册会计师协会采取上述行动之前，德勤于2021年9月与加拿大公共问责委员会达成了类似的和解协议。加拿大公共问责委员会不能以经济损失或惩罚性理由进行罚款，该委员会向德勤收取了10万加元以支付其费用。

美国上市公司会计监督委员会也在2021年9月就同一事件对德勤罚款35万美元。

原英文报道如下：

Ontario accounting regulator disciplines five Deloitte partners

Five current and former partners at Deloitte LLP have settled allegations levelled by CPA Ontario that they falsified date and time stamps on audit work papers.

The actions by the provincial regulator of chartered professional accountants and firms are the first against individual Deloitte employees since its October sanction of the firm. Deloitte agreed to pay $1.59-million to settle the matter.

The settlements with the five partners require each to pay a $20,000 fine as well as $20,000 of CPA Ontario’s investigative costs. The settlements also detail Deloitte’s August, 2019, internal disciplinary actions for the five partners, but none of the descriptions say any were suspended, demoted or terminated. Three of the five remain with the firm, while another describes himself on LinkedIn as “retired.” The Globe and Mail could not determine the fifth partner’s current employment status.

Susan Bennett, Deloitte’s Canadian managing partner for audit and assurance, declined to answer questions about individual employee discipline, calling it “confidential.”

“We hold ourselves to the highest professional standards,” Ms. Bennett said in an interview. “These settlements resolve past allegations with CPA Ontario. We’ve taken fairly significant and proactive steps, and we believe the settlement agreements with the individuals should be the final step in this process.”

CPA Ontario spokesperson Kathryn Hanley said she could not answer a question about whether the regulator had any undisclosed actions pending against any other Deloitte employees. “We cannot comment on anything not publicly filed,” she said.

In the public settlement documents, CPA Ontario says that in September, 2019, Deloitte told the regulator that about 25 of its partners and professional staff in Ontario had changed the sign-off dates in numerous audit working papers, in many cases to dates other than when the work occurred.

The regulator’s investigators subsequently identified 35 Deloitte CPAs who engaged in the backdating between November, 2016, and May, 2018, largely by manually changing the date on their computer to elude internal controls.

CPA Ontario says the matter is important because Canadian audit standards require accountants to maintain accurate, timely documentation to substantiate the reliability of an independent auditor’s report. The standards require audit working papers to be signed off to mark the completion of each step in the process. Otherwise, the audit can be questioned, the regulator says.

Deloitte’s internal investigation ultimately concluded that the backdating “was not done with malicious or fraudulent intent but rather with the intent to more accurately reflect the date the work was actually performed,” according to CPA Ontario.

Deloitte and the five partners agreed with the facts and conclusions in the CPA Ontario settlements “for the purpose of this proceeding only,” their agreements say. Deloitte did not consider it necessary to withdraw any audit reports tied to the five partners’ backdating, according to CPA Ontario and Ms. Bennett.

The partners who settled

Nancy Ewings, with Deloitte since 1995, was the deputy leader of its private audit practice for Ontario at the time and remains a partner today. CPA Ontario says Ms. Ewings admitted she engaged in backdating while working as the lead engagement partner on about 80 audits for both private and public companies, but the exact number of working papers she backdated is unknown because Deloitte did not provide CPA Ontario with sufficient information. The regulator says Deloitte lowered her quality rating for the 2019 fiscal year – a performance metric used in part to determine incentive pay – to “Meets Expectations” from “Exceeds Expectations,” resulting in a reduction of $56,000. Ms. Ewings declined to comment.

Steven Lawrenson, with Deloitte since 1991, leads its Southwestern Ontario public-company audit practice. CPA Ontario says Mr. Lawrenson personally backdated 241 audit working papers and other documents in two public-company audits and one private-company audit, for which he was lead engagement partner. CPA Ontario says Deloitte lowered his quality rating for the 2018 fiscal year to “Improvement Required” from “Meets Expectations,” resulting in a pay reduction of $65,750. Mr. Lawrenson did not respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.

Stacy Levac, with Deloitte since 2016, worked in audit in the Ottawa office exclusively for privately owned companies. He left Deloitte in June, 2022, and could not be reached for comment. CPA Ontario said Mr. Levac personally backdated 199 audit working papers and other documents on four audits where he was the lead engagement partner and one where he was the engagement quality control review (EQCR) partner. Deloitte lowered his quality rating for the 2019 fiscal year to “Improvement Required” from “Meets Expectations,” eliminated his incentive compensation and reduced a discretionary bonus by $10,000.

Ratan Ralliaram, with Deloitte since 1993, was the team leader for the GTA audit financial services group from 2017 to 2019 and remains a partner with the firm. CPA Ontario says Mr. Ralliaram himself backdated a total of 268 papers and instructed two auditors under his leadership to backdate three working papers. He personally backdated documents on 10 audits of two public and eight private companies and instructed another auditor to backdate on an 11th. He was the lead engagement partner on nine of the 11. CPA Ontario says Deloitte lowered his quality rating for the 2018 fiscal year to “Improvement Required” from “Meets Expectations,” resulting in a pay reduction of $52,600. Deloitte also did not permit him to hold a leadership position over the conduct of audits or participate in audit work for any SEC issuers through June 30, 2021. Mr. Ralliaram did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mervyn Ramos, with Deloitte since 2002, had been a lead engagement and EQCR partner and worked for clients in the financial services industry. He left Deloitte in June, 2023, and describes himself as “retired” on his LinkedIn profile. CPA Ontario says Mr. Ramos personally backdated 41 working papers in three audits, one for a public company, one for a private company and one for a private company about to go public. CPA Ontario says Deloitte lowered his quality rating for the 2018 fiscal year to “Meets Most Expectations” from “Meets Expectations.” Mr. Ramos did not respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.

Deloitte required all five partners to participate in training as part of the disciplinary action.

The CPA Ontario actions follow a similar settlement by Deloitte in September, 2021, with the Canadian Public Accountability Board, which inspects the firms that audit public companies. CPAB, which cannot assess fines for economic damages or punitive reasons, charged Deloitte $100,000 to cover its costs.

The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board also disciplined Deloitte in September, 2021, over the same matter, fining it US$350,000.

来源：四大新鲜事儿