KUALA LUMPUR: The Court of Appeal today ruled in favour of the Securities Commission (SC) and dismissed Andrew Heng’s appeal against the High Court’s decision dismissing his judicial review application.
A statement issued by the SC today said the court also awarded cost of RM15,000 to the Commission.
On Aug 2, 2019, the SC's Audit Oversight Board (AOB) reprimanded Heng, a partner of Baker Tilly Monteiro Heng PLT, for failing to comply with relevant International Standards on Auditing.
As the engagement partner for the audit of a public interest entity (PIE), AOB found that Heng had failed to perform sufficient audit procedures and obtain sufficient audit evidence to support the conclusions reached on the existence of cash and bank balances, and bank overdrafts as at Dec 31, 2014.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, the PIE adopted an early cut-off date of Dec 20, 2014, for its recording of bank transactions.
“Heng had subsequently filed an appeal to the SC to review AOB's decision. The SC dismissed the appeal and affirmed the AOB’s actions on Nov 12, 2019,” it said.
On the same date, it said Heng filed an application for a judicial review to inter alia set aside both the AOB and SC’s decisions, but the High Court, on Aug 25, 2020, ruled in favour of the SC and dismissed Heng’s judicial review application with cost of RM10,000 to be paid to the SC.
Heng subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeal and the publication of this reprimand, which was subject to a stay of execution by the High Court, has been uplifted following the decision of the Court of Appeal, it added.-Bernama
