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The United Kingdom’s accounting regulator is investigating EY on its audits of the Post Office in the last consequences of the Horizon It scandal in which hundreds of postmasters were unjustly condemned by defective software information.
The Financial Information Council said Wednesday that it would analyze whether the work of the Big Four firm in the audits of the Post Office for the financial years ended between 2015 and 2018 Met of the accounting standards.
The FRC said his research would have a particular approach to “matters related to the Horizon It system”, which was in the heart of the scandal.
The opening of the probe follows the conclusion of public audiences carried out as part of a broader investigation into the Horizon scandalthat did not cover the audits of EY of the Post Office.
That consultation, which was established in 2020 to examine how more than 900 sub-postmasters were sentenced with defective data from the Horizon It system, concluded their public audiences in December and is preparing to publish its final report.
The matter caused public indignation when dramatized in a 2024 ITV series, which caused the legislation to clear the names of condemned subpostmasters.
The supervision of the audits of the Post Office generally falls in the commercial agency, the Institute of Public Accountants in England and Wales, but the FRC said that it had “recovered” the matter due to the “intensified” public interest that surrounds it.
Hey He said that he had been notified of Frc’s investigation, adding: “We took our responsibilities of public interest extremely seriously and we will be fully cooperating with the FRC during his investigation.”