PwC quits as auditor to troubled Triad

PricewaterhouseCoopers has resigned as auditor to Triad Group, the IT services company that sacked its chief executive, Mira Makar, after she instigated an independent investigation into accounting issues.

PwC resigned in April, it emerged yesterday, and has been replaced by BDO Stoy Hayward.

Ms Makar, a 30 per cent shareholder in the company, was first suspended then dismissed by Triad last year after she hired the firm of auditors Egan Roberts and Stork, a risk assessment company, to help carry out an investigation into financial problems at Triad's IT contracting business in Milton Keynes. Triad unveiled a pretax loss yesterday of £791,000 for the year to March against a profit of £138,000 the year before. Revenues fell to £42.7m from £46.2m.

The loss includes £391,000 of legal fees incurred by the firm when it fought off Ms Makar's attempts to scrutinise its books. In March, Ms Makar brought a claim against the company in the Employment Tribunal. Triad said it was resisting the claim "vigorously".

Last year's results revealed that in PwC's opinion, Triad had failed to keep proper accounting records as required by the Companies Act. Triad said at the time that "appropriate steps had been taken to address these issues".