BYJU’s auditor Deloitte resigns, and the edtech company hires BDO for the audit
Due to a significant delay in the edtech company’s financial statement for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, Deloitte Haskins and Sells withdrew as BYJU’s auditor three years before the contract’s expiration date, the audit firm said in a regulatory filing. Separately, the edtech company BYJU’S said that it has chosen BDO (MSKA & Associates) to serve as its statutory auditors for the five years beginning with the financial year 2022.
Deloitte said it routinely wrote to Byju Raveendran, the managing director of BYJU, with a copy to the board of directors, but it was unable to start the audit as of this point, so it made the decision to resign.
“As of right now, we are unable to comment on the audit. Because of this, we won’t be able to plan, create, carry out, and finish the audit in compliance with the relevant auditing standards. In light of the aforementioned, Deloitte Haskins & Sells wrote to the BYJU’S board, “We are offering our resignation as the company’s statutory auditors with immediate effect.
Deloitte has been collaborating with BYJU’S since 2016, and on April 1, 2020, it was reappointed as the company’s statutory auditor for Think and Learn Private Limited, which does business under the BYJU’S name.
The company’s financial results for the year ending March 31, 2022, are well behind schedule. The audited financial accounts for the year ended March 31, 2022, were to be presented to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting by September 30, 2022, in compliance with the Companies Act of 2013, according to Deloitte.
The audit company claimed that it had sent emails to BYJU’s managing director Byju Raveendran on September 30, 2022, and November 5, 2022, as well as letters on November 12, 2022, and December 24, 2022, to the board of directors and to the company on March 29, 2023, requesting a statutory audit for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2022.
The auditing firm said that it has not heard from anybody about the settlement of the audit report changes for the fiscal year 2021 or the status of the financial statements’ and associated documents’ audit readiness for the fiscal year 2022.
Under the condition of anonymity, sources with knowledge of the development at BYJU’S said that the company’s audit process was delayed as it awaited the appointment of a new chief financial officer.
Ajay Goel, the business’s new group CFO, joined BYJU approximately a month ago, and the company is now prepared to begin the audit process the following week.
The group-level audit is expected to be finished in the following quarter thanks to BDO’s expertise serving as an auditor for BYJU’S subsidiaries, which guarantees that they are acquainted with the organization’s activities.
The parent firm Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, its significant subsidiaries like Aakash Education Services Limited, as well as the consolidated results for the whole group will all be covered by BDO.
According to BYJU’S, “this thorough audit coverage will give a holistic view of BYJU’S financial performance and ensure transparency throughout the organisation.”
It said that Goel had gone through a thorough vetting procedure before deciding on BDO as BYJU’S auditors.
Following a well planned selection procedure, we have great confidence in our decision to choose BDO as our auditors. They are the ideal match for our organisation due to their remarkable talents and knowledge in delivering audit services to internationally diverse large-scale enterprises. In order to preserve the greatest levels of financial scrutiny and responsibility, we are thrilled to work with BDO,” Goel stated.
Currently, BDO audits companies such ICICI, Cisco, IndusInd Bank, and others, and is regarded as one of the top five worldwide audit firms in terms of turnover.
