Section 197: Appointment of partnership as auditor

197. Appointment of partnership as auditor (1) A partnership may be appointed by the firm name to be the auditor of a company where— (a) at least one member of the firm is ordinarily resident in Mauritius; (b) all or some of the partners including the partner who is ordinarily resident in terms of paragraph (a) are qualified for appointment under section 198; (c) no member of the firm is indebted in an amount exceeding 10,000 rupees to the company or a related corporation unless the debt is in the ordinary course of business; (d) no member of the firm is— (i) an officer or employee of the company; or (ii) a partner, or in the employment, of a director or employee of the company or a related corporation; (e) except in the case of a small private company, no officer of the company receives any remuneration from the firm or acts as a consultant to it on accounting or auditing matters. (2) The appointment of a partnership by the firm name to be the auditor of a company shall, notwithstanding section 198, be deemed to be the appointment of all the persons who are partners in the firm from time to time whether ordinarily resident in Mauritius or not at the date of the appointment. (3) Where a partnership that includes persons who are not qualified to be appointed as auditors of a company is appointed as auditor of a company, the persons who are not qualified to be appointed as auditors shall not act as auditors of the company. (4) Where a firm has been appointed as auditor of a company and the members constituting the firm change by reason of the death, retirement, or withdrawal of a member or by reason of the admission of a new member, the firm as newly constituted shall, if it is not disqualified from acting as auditor of the company by virtue of subsection (1), be deemed to be appointed under this section as auditor of the company and that appointment shall be taken to be an appointment of all persons who are members of the firm as newly constituted. (5) A report required to be signed on behalf of a firm appointed as auditor of a company shall be signed in the firm’s name and in his own name by a member of the firm who is a qualified auditor.