MEC Auditors BDO fined MK4.8 million

The Institute of Chartered Accountants In Malawi (Icam) has imposed fines on international audit firm BDO for contraventions related to the nullified May 21 presidential election.

This comes after BDO had appeared before Icam’s disciplinary committee following complaints from Malawi Congress Party and a concerned citizen.

“Furthermore, the terms of reference had a serious and significant limitation on the scope of the work that threatened the independence of BDO: The firm was not allowed to stop the transmission and processing of the results if they noticed any irregularities,” ICAM said in its letter.

According to a letter we have seen, Icam has ordered BDO to pay K 1 million for failing to stop the transmission of electoral results despite having noticed irregularities.

BDO has been ordered to pay another K 1 million as penalty for engaging junior auditors in the country without obtaining their reference, considering gravity of the job they were tasking them with.

BDO was further found in the wrong for allocating one engangement partner and 16 supervisors against 197 constituencies.

The institute said BDO should have employed sufficient numbers of staff commensurate with the workload and also bearing in mind the sensitivity of the exercise.

For the misconduct, BDO was fined MK800, 000.

The Company has been asked to settle the fine before March 31, 2020.