Accountant takes ICATT to court

This is the contention of Seetaram’s lead counsel in a judicial review action taken against ICATT, which convened a disciplinary tribunal to examine Seetaram’s professional conduct.

Justice Devindra Rampersad is presiding over the judicial review claim and entertained submissions from Seetaram’s attorneys as well as attorneys for ICATT on Thursday last.

Seetaram is seeking to have the judge declare that the investigations committee had no jurisdiction to refer to the disciplinary committee complaints of alleged breaches of ICATT’s rules of conduct for accountants.

In his submissions, Alvin Fitzpatrick SC, who leads a team of attorneys for Seetaram, argued that the actions taken by the tribunal was unlawful and illegal as there was no proper complaint made by the investigations committee.

He also submitted that the investigations committee was not entitled to use Seetaram’s previous statements as the basis for a complaint.

Fitzpatrick’s argument was however challenged by ICATT lead counsel Fyard Hosein SC, who contended that it was a new allegation being raised and could not be argued as leave had not been granted by the court for Seetaram to pursue that point. “It adds a new dimension to the matter.

It was not pleaded and it is unfair,” Hosein said.

After hearing from both sides, Justice Rampersad agreed to give ICATT’s legal team additional time to respond to the argument advanced by Fitzpatrick.

At the commission of inquiry into the collapse of CL Financial’s insurance arm, CLICO and the HCU, Seetaram, in 2012, testified that he failed to disclose a $150 million consolidated loss at an annual general meeting; concealed a $31 million loss among “prior adjustments” in the 2005 accounts; back-dated audited accounts and rushed preparing accounts – represented as fully audited accounts – upon the request of former HCU president Harry Harnarine.

He later denied he cooked the books, but blamed a typist for a crucial oversight on the HCU books. Seetaram was the auditor appointed to look into HCU’s accounts following its collapse.

His testimony resulted in a disciplinary probe by a committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, after former minister Mariano Browne made a complaint calling for an investigation into Seetaram’s conduct.

An investigation committee was set up by ICATT which later found a prima facie case had been made out against the accountant and a disciplinary committee was established.

Seetaram was given notice on March 16, 2015 to appear before the committee and he did so on April 30. He later challenged the power of the investigations committee to refer any matter to a disciplinary tribunal.

His preliminary points were dismissed and the disciplinary committee found that it did have jurisdiction to hear the alleged breaches of the Rules of Professional Conduct which govern the accounting profession. Seetaram filed a judicial review claim in the courts, bring to a halt the disciplinary proceedings inquiry into his conduct.

Seetaram is represented by Senior Counsel Alvin Fitzpatrick, Adrian Byrne and Jason Mootoo while ICATT is represented by Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein, Anil Maraj and Sasha Bridgemohan.