Easier in limbo as search for auditor continues
Search for third auditor in a year has so far proved fruitless
Troubled cash-shell Easier is still searching for a replacement auditor
following the resignation of Brebner Allen & Trapp, the second firm to quit
the company in just nine months.
The search for the company’s third auditor in a year was still ‘ongoing’,
according to an Easier spokesman, following Brebner’s decision to quit after
failing to receive ‘sufficient audit evidence’ regarding the company’s assets.
Brebner’s resignation letter, filed at Companies House, stated: ‘We consider
that the absence of such evidence in this significant area is a limitation of
scope likely to result in the need to issue a disclaimer of opinion on the
financial statements.’
Brebner’s letter called for Easier’s board directors to bring the
circumstances behind the resignation to the attention of the company’s members
and creditors, which the directors are obliged to do under the Companies Act. It
is understood that the directors are yet to do so.
Worried Easier shareholders have focused their attention on details
surrounding the company’s £5.3m cash assets, which its directors have claimed is
held on deposit.
The circumstances behind Brebner’s decision to quit Easier’s audit mirrored
those of Deloitte’s resignation from the audit in October 2004.
The Big Four firm quit the role after it failed to receive an adequate
response to requests for information relating to the company’s investments.
Easier shareholder Neville Buch, who is leading a revolt against Easier’s
board of directors, had previously tried to take control of the company after he
claimed that Easier directors had failed to notify shareholders of Deloitte’s
departure.
Buch has called for a court hearing in October to order an EGM, in a bid to
replace Easier’s current board with himself and fellow dissident shareholder,
Gilbert Chalk.