29th Oct 2019 08:48
(Alliance News) - The UK Financial Reporting Council on Tuesday said it has fined and "severely reprimanded" Deloitte LLP's audit engagement partner Ross Howard in respect of misconduct for the audit of Serco Group PLC's UK subsidiary.
Howard, who was Deloitte's audit engagement partner for Serco Geografix Ltd for its 2012 audit, has been fined GBP120,000, discounted for settlement to GBP78,000.
"Mr Howard failed to act in accordance with the Fundamental Principle of Professional Competence and Due Care," the regulator said.
Shares in Hampshire, England-based public services provider Serco were up 0.9% in London on Tuesday at 154.10 pence each.
In July, the regulator "severely reprimanded" and fined Deloitte GBP4.2 million for the audit of Serco Geografix. It also ordered Deloitte's audit staff to undergo a training programme.
Serco Geografix, also in July, reached an agreement with the UK SFO to take responsibility for fraud and false advertising.
Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Serco Geografix paid a GBP19.2 million fine along with GBP3.7 million of the fraud office's investigation costs.
Serco Geografix took responsibility, under the proposed agreement, for three fraud offences and two false accounting offences between 2010 and 2013. These relate to the subsidiary's reporting to the UK Ministry of Justice concerning "the levels of profitability of Serco's electronic monitoring contract".
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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