KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): Crowe Horwath AF, the country's fifth largest accounting firm, said it is seeking leave to appeal to the Federal Court to reverse a decision by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday to strike out the suit filed by the firm and two of its partners, Onn Kien Hoe and Lee Kok Wai, against the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) for whistle-blower protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010.

"Crowe Horwath is disappointed with the Court of Appeal decision and is seeking leave to appeal to the Federal Court to reverse the decision as we believe that we are in fact entitled to whistleblower protection," it said in a statement today.

"The final outcome is not yet known. The Court of Appeal in dismissing the suit by Crowe Horwath did not provide reasons for its decision and no grounds were issued.

"This is contrary to the decision of the High Court in agreeing with Crowe Horwath where the High Court had dismissed the striking out application by the SC," it added.

On Wednesday, the SC said in the Court of Appeal, it had submitted that its application to strike out the suit should be allowed as there was an abuse of the court process given the initiation of multiple proceedings including four judicial review applications, to resist the Audit Oversight Board's (AOB) enforcement action against Lee and that the three parties are not entitled to the protection under the Act.

To this, Crowe Horwath said it has appealed against the decision the AOB made against Lee on Jan 16. The appeal has yet to be heard.

The AOB had reprimanded and imposed a penalty of RM50,000 on Lee for failure to comply with the International Standards on Auditing in respect of an audit on the financial statements of Silverbird Group Bhd for the financial year ended Oct 30, 2010.

"The decision of the AOB was in regard to an audit performed by Crowe Horwath on a public interest entity in 2010," said Crowe Horwath.

"While we recognise the importance of the AOB's role in regulating the auditing profession in Malaysia, we respectfully disagree with the findings of the AOB and its decision against a partner of the firm.

"We firmly believe that the audit of the public interest entity has been conducted by us in compliance with all applicable auditing standards in Malaysia," the firm added.

"We have also applied by Judicial Review to set aside the decision of the AOB. If Crowe Horwath succeeds, the decision, including the reprimand and penalty imposed, would be set aside," it noted.