Deloitte Anjin LLC, one of the industry’s top four in South Korea, has been appointed as an outside auditor for the nation’s largest company Samsung Electronics Co. by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) under the new auditor designation system, stirring controversy over the decision because the auditor was once suspended for accounting wrongdoing.

Under a revised rule, companies from next year can appoint their external auditor just for six years and then work with an accounting firm designated by the financial authority for the following three years under the revised audit act.

The FSS appointed auditors for top 220 firms by assets – 134 Kospi-listed firms and 86 Kosdaq-listed ones – on Tuesday, which included Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Shinhan Financial Group, KB Financial Group, Samsung Life Insurance, S-Oil, NC Soft, Kakao, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Lotte Chemical.

The authority designated auditors for 220 largest companies out of 459 companies with assets more than 182.6 billion won ($153.8 million) in the first round, and the rest will have their external auditors designated next year.

But some questioned eligibility of Deloitte Anjin to audit Samsung Electronics, the country’s most valuable company who has been working with Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers for 40 years.

Deloitte Anjin, the Korean unit of New York-based accounting firm, was accused of window dressing audit reports of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2016. Following the incident, the financial authority decided to revise the external audit act amid criticism that Korean companies work with the same auditors for too long, which could result in collusion in audit reporting and even massive losses. Deloitte Anjin was ordered to suspend business for a year due to the accounting fraud related to DSME.

An official from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said that the authorities will increase appointment of small- and mid-sized accounting firms for big name companies under the new system.

By Jin Young-tae and Choi Mira

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