Typed in from the Dead Tree Edition. There is NO need for Steve G to
act unsurprised 8-)

Age Business p3, Tuesday January 21, 2003
Deloitte chief quits over links to New Tel: by Tom Ravlic

The chief executive of one of Australia's top four accounting firms,
Domenic Martino, has resigned following public scrutiny of his past
invovement as a director of the troubled telecommunications company,
New Tel.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu announced that Lynn Odland, a past chief
executive of the Australian firm, is again the firm's chief executive
for at least the next six months while another chief executive is
appointed.

Mr Odland was the firm's chief executive from 1997 to 2001. Once Mr
Martino had been anointed as chief executive, he moved from the post
of chief executive to that of the firm's national chairman - a role
he will now relinquish to deputy chairman Harley McHutchison.

"I will probably see the firm out until at least the end of the
fiscal year - being May 31 - but we may even get a chief executive
even sooner," Mr Odland told The Age.

A media statement issued yesterday by Deloitte quotes Mr Martino as
saying he "believes firmly that any future investigation of New Tel
will demonstrate that he properly fulfilled his duties as a director
until he resigned in February 2002, 11 months before New Tel went
into liquidation".

Controversy over Mr Martino's involvement as a director of New Tel is
due to media reports linking the former executive director's New Tel
board membership and fees Deloitte was receiving for services
provided to the telco.

The Martino resignation has accelerated the release of a revised
policy for directorships that has been approved in principle by
Deloitte's board of directors.

Most accounting firms, including Deloitte, prohibit partners from
holding directorships in audit clients, but the revised policy will
prohibit the holding of directoships in proprietary companies, except
in rare circumstances.

Those rare circumstances will typically have to be subject to the
approval of the management of the accounting firm, too (sic) ensure
there is no potential conflict.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' policy, for example, requires partners and
staff to seek clearance from the firm for membership of a board.
Approval may be withheld if circumstances that might create a
conflict of interest for the firm are identified.

Mr McHutchison said Deloitte believed it was critical to ensure the
community had confidence in the work of auditors. One way of doing
this was to limit the circumstances where a conflict of interest,
real or perceived, could arise from a partner or senior staff member
being a director of a company.

"We don't want to be in a position of a potential conflct of interest.

"We think the community at large has a heighened concerned (sic)
about conflicts of interest," Mr McHutchison said.

Mr Odland said he expected no major difficulties with the
implementation of the revised policy, because only four or five
partners in a partnership of about 250 partners would be affected by
the move.
-oOo-