Court rejects former PwC employee’s claim

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a man's claim he was entitled to a review of the rejection of his complaint about his former accountancy firm employer, PwC.

Peter Nowak sought orders quashing a decision by the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA) refusing his application for a review of his complaint, previously rejected by an IAASA regulatory board as not constituting a complaint.

The complaint about his former employer and training firm, PwC, related to alleged non-compliance with accounting and audit standards over two audits.

When IAASA’s regulatory board rejected his complaint, it said there were no facts evidencing that PwC had breach professional or accounting standards.

Mr Nowak brought High Court judicial review proceedings over the IAASA’s refusal to carry out an independent review of its regulatory board’s decision.

The IAASA stated, because no formal complaint file had been opened, there was therefore no complaint.

The High Court rejected his case saying it was a matter within the IAASA’s discretion whether or not to initiate an inquiry. There was “absolutely no evidence of anything approaching unreasonableness or irrationality” in the IAASA decision, it said.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal dismissed Mr Nowak’s appeal against that decision. Mr Nowak indicated afterwards he intends to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

ThepPresident of the Court of Appeal, Mr Justice Sean Ryan, said the High Court was correct in deciding the IAASA had given Mr Nowak reasons for its decision which were subsequently elaborated on in affidavits.

Mr Nowak had failed to satisfy the High Court the IAASA was in default in relation to the initiation of inquiries and had not, in his appeal, shown any error in the analysis given by the High Court, the judge ruled.