The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday adjourned a suit by KPMG Professional Services and a partner, Ayodele Othihiwa, against the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) till November 19.
FRC’s lawyer Mr. Norrison Quakers (SAN) said his client needed time to respond.
He said: “I’ve just been briefed. The processes were given to me yesterday (Tuesday). I observed that this court had made an interim order. I’ll need time to study the processes and file the requisite responses.”
Counsel to the plaintiffs Mr. Babatunde Fagbohunlu (SAN), said he had no objection to the application for an adjournment.
Justice Ibrahim Buba last Friday restrained FRC from imposing any sanction on KPMG until the firm’s suit was determined.
FRC, in an October 30 letter, conveyed its ‘regulatory decision’ to the applicants, following their role in the financial statements of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc for 2013 and 2014.
The council said it had suspended Othihiwa “until the investigation as to the extent of the negligence of KPMG Professional Services is ascertained.”
KPMG and Othihiwa said the FRC’s decision was published and issued without informing or notifying them of the nature of the allegations made against them, nor were they invited to respond to the allegations.
They claimed the FRC’s decision not only violated their right to fair hearing, but flouted Section 62(2) of the FRC Act, which spelt out the procedure to be adopted in investigating a professional body for any ‘complaint or dishonest practice, negligence, professional misconduct or malpractice’.
The section states that FRC “shall notify the professional, whose conduct, act or omission is under investigation of the nature of the complaint and it shall summon or hear the professional.”
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