PKF has received a consent order from the ICAEW Investigation Committee to pay a £75,000 fine and £27,000 in costs following its audit opinions on an unnamed company in 2000 and 2001.

In its latest list of disciplinary orders and regulatory decisions the ICAEW said that the Investigation Committee had made an order for the fines and the costs. The committee said PKF should also be 'severely reprimanded' for the audit.

The papers say that in issuing two unqualified audits on the company in March 2000 and March 2001, PKF had 'failed to obtain sufficient knowledge' of the workings of how subsidiaries of the company were operated and what impact transactions at these subsidiaries would have on the financial statements.

The papers also said PKF had 'failed to plan and perform the audit of the group to obtain reasonable assurance that the group financial statements were free from material misstatement'.

Finally, the audit failed to obtain 'sufficient competent evidential matter' with respect to revenues, cost of revenues and intangible assets at the company's subsidiaries.

Responding to the fine and costs, PKF said that since 2001, the 'regulatory environment' had changed significantly and that PKF, along with the rest of the audit industry, had 'strengthened' its audit processes.