Category Archives: Accountancy

‘Incredible failure’: KPMG rejects claims it assessed ‘the wrong company’ before $423m payment to Paladin

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Exclusive: Firm’s denial comes after weeks of intense criticism, including accusations that it misled parliament

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Consultancy firm KPMG Australia has rejected claims it conducted due diligence on “the wrong company” before the federal government gave nearly half a billion dollars to a controversial company with no track record.

The firm’s objection to comments by a member of a Senate inquiry examining its conduct come after weeks of intense criticism and accusations it repeatedly misled parliament over its use of so-called power maps, which identify influential decision makers within departments.

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EY Oceania accused of potential conflict of interest over government contracts on climate policy

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Exclusive: Consultancy firm supported oil and gas industry lobbying while being paid for independent advice on Albanese’s signature climate policy

Consultancy firm EY Oceania was supporting the oil and gas industry’s lobbying efforts while being paid by the federal government for independent advice on its signature climate policy and gas emissions.

The firm, which is a member of the oil and gas lobby and audits Santos, insists there was no conflict of interest between its work for industry and government. But a bipartisan group of politicians and transparency advocates is not convinced and has demanded more information.

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Australian academics apologise for false AI-generated allegations against big four consultancy firms

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Case studies created by Google Bard AI as part of submission to parliamentary inquiry proven to be factually incorrect

A group of academics has offered an unreserved apology to the big four consultancy firms after admitting they used artificial intelligence to make false allegations of serious wrongdoing in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry.

The accusations have been met with scorn by the firms, concerned that inaccurate information has been given parliamentary privilege to unfairly tarnish the reputation of its staff.

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KPMG boss says Carillion auditing was ‘very bad’ as firm is fined record £21m

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Jon Holt says some employees ‘simply didn’t do their job properly’ in run-up to one of UK’s biggest corporate failures

The UK boss of KPMG has said he “simply cannot defend” the firm’s auditing work on the failed government contractor, Carillion, describing it as “very bad,” as the accounting giant was hit with a record £21m fine by Britain’s accounting watchdog.

The fine comes almost six years after the outsourcing firm collapsed with £7bn debts. Carillion had been one of the UK’s biggest construction and facilities management companies, with several major government contracts.

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PwC tax leak scandal not isolated to Australia, senators claim

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Accounting firm says no evidence confidential information used by partners outside Australia for commercial gain

The politicians who exposed PwC’s leak of government secrets have claimed the scandal is not isolated to Australia, citing emails that reveal global partners knew they received confidential material and provided assistance.

Confirmation that PwC Australia partners shared confidential details about multinational tax plans triggered an internal investigation, released on Wednesday, which exposed a culture where “revenue is king” and profit is sometimes prioritised above ethics.

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Poundland moves to buy 71 Wilko sites with possible jobs guarantee for staff

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PwC says owner plans to reopen stores under Poundland brand throwing lifeline to as many as 1,800 staff

Poundland is to acquire up to 71 Wilko sites that it intends to reopen under its own brand in a deal that could throw a lifeline to some of the about 1,800 staff who will lose their jobs at the stricken retailer.

Under the deal struck by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with Poundland’s parent company Pepco, the sites will be acquired only after all 408 Wilko stores are shut and more than 12,000 staff made redundant.

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Labor launches crackdown on tax adviser misconduct following PwC scandal

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Government says it will increase penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes and bolster regulators’ powers

Penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes will be increased tenfold and financial regulators will get much stronger powers as the federal government seeks to fix “severe shortcomings” in the nation’s financial systems exposed by the PwC scandal.

In what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers calls, “the biggest crackdown on tax adviser misconduct in Australian history”, advisers and firms promoting tax exploitation schemes would face fines up to $780m, while red tape that hamstrung regulators from better investigating PwC will be slashed. The Treasury department will also conduct a two-year whole-of-government response to the shortcomings exposed by the disclosure of confidential tax information.

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Economic growth to pick up but risks to recovery ‘elevated’, say UK forecasts

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Households and firms can expect more financial pain despite Britain dodging technical recession, says KPMG

Britain will be left with deep scars from the pandemic despite narrowly escaping a second recession within three years and growing signs of an economic pick up, according to new forecasts.

A new report by the accountancy firm KPMG has found that the economy has enjoyed a better start to the year than it had thought, and is now expected to grow by 0.3% this year, compared with its previous prediction of an uplift of just 0.1%.

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Australia’s leading super funds halt future contracts with PwC amid tax scandal fallout

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AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hesta and Aware Super say they won’t enter into new contracts with the firm

Australia’s biggest superannuation funds have either frozen, or are reviewing, future work contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, as the fallout from the tax leaks scandal proves costly for the embattled firm.

Four of the country’s biggest funds, AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hesta and Aware Super, say they will not enter into new contracts with PwC, after the professional services firm used confidential information obtained through its work for the government for commercial gain.

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Labor senator accuses PwC of ‘deception and betrayal’ in misuse of Treasury information

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Deborah O’Neill has also raised concerns that other consultancy firms may have engaged in similar practices without being detected

An Australian senator has delivered a scathing rebuke of the consultancy firm PwC, arguing its misuse of Treasury information was a betrayal of professional ethics and standards while suggesting more resignations may be necessary.

On Monday night, the chief executive of PwC Australia, Tom Seymour, resigned after sustained criticism of the firm allegedly profiting from sharing confidential government tax policy with colleagues.

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EY plan to break up consultancy and audit divisions blocked by US office

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Accountancy firm confirms work has stopped on radical scheme after internal concerns about structure

EY has scrapped plans for a radical breakup of its global operations after internal disputes over the potential structure of the new businesses.

The company started laying the groundwork for separating its audit and advisory businesses – under the codename Project Everest – last year, as the big four accounting firms faced mounting criticism about conflicts of interest between the two divisions.

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Deloitte CEO in thinly veiled criticism of EY after rival’s split plans thrown into chaos

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Joe Ucuzoglu posts 20-minute video to Deloitte’s public website

Deloitte’s chief executive has launched a thinly veiled criticism of rival EY after its controversial plans to split the business into two were thrown into turmoil.

EY initially announced plans for a radical breakup of its global operations last year, that would separate its audit and advisory businesses.

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China instructs state firms to phase out big four auditors

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Firms urged to allow contracts with Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC to expire

The Chinese government has reportedly instructed state-owned companies to phase out contracts with the big four accounting including KPMG and EY, as authorities try to address security concerns and curb the influence of western-linked auditors.

China’s finance ministry is among the government entities that have issued informal guidance last month, urging state-owned corporations to let contracts with Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC expire, according to Bloomberg News.

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£1.1bn in fees, 3.1m hours, 14 years: the UK cost of winding up Lehman Brothers

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PwC, administrator of Lehman’s London arm since bank’s failure in 2008, secures three more years to finish process

Administrators will spend at least three more years winding up the London-based arm of Lehman Brothers, swelling the almost £1.1bn in fees that PwC has already raked in since the bank’s calamitous collapse in 2008.

PwC has secured court approval to extend the administration process for the investment bank’s European hub to 2025, given the “complexity of unwinding the group’s affairs” after one of the biggest corporate failures in history.

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KPMG partner banned from accounting after misleading regulator over Carillion

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Peter Meehan, who led audit of failed outsourcer, will also have to pay fine of £250,000

The KPMG partner who led the audit of failed outsourcer Carillion has been banned from the accounting profession for a decade for providing false and misleading information to regulators.

Peter Meehan will also have to pay a fine of £250,000 after a Financial Reporting Council (FRC) tribunal found that he and other KPMG managers had misled the regulator using forged documents.

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PwC told client it could cut Australian tax by $70m, court documents in privilege fight show

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The Australian Tax Office is auditing Brazilian meat processor JBS over tax restructure

Global accounting firm PwC told Brazilian meat multinational JBS it would save about $70m a year in Australian tax if the company followed advice that was deliberately structured as a legal service in order to prevent it being seen by authorities, according to documents released by the federal court.

PwC’s decision to provide tax advice to JBS as legal advice was legal, but the strategy backfired after the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) launched an audit of JBS.

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KPMG’s Bill Michael resigns after telling staff to ‘stop moaning’

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Firm’s UK chair apologises for comments in virtual meeting about Covid crisis

KPMG’s UK chair, Bill Michael, has resigned after telling staff to “stop moaning” during a virtual meeting about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, where he also called unconscious bias “crap”.

Related: KPMG UK chair tells staff to 'stop moaning' about Covid work conditions

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‘Unconscious bias is utter crap’: KPMG staff share shock at UK chair’s Zoom comments

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Accounting firm investigates as more details emerge of meeting where Bill Michael told staff to stop moaning

New details have emerged of controversial comments by the UK chair of KPMG, who has stepped aside while the accounting firm investigates what he said to staff during a virtual meeting.

A video of the Zoom meeting was published on Thursday in which Bill Michael describes the concept of unconscious bias as being “complete and utter crap for years”.

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Failure to seal post-Brexit deal would more than halve UK growth, says KPMG

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Accountancy firm warns of stalled economic recovery without EU trade agreement

Failure to strike a post-Brexit trade deal would cut the UK’s economic growth rate by more than half next year, delaying a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.

The accountancy firm KPMG said the economy would suffer heavily should the UK fail to secure a trade deal with the EU before the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of December, just as the country attempts to escape the deepest recession since records began.

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EY ordered to pay whistleblower $11m in Dubai gold audit case

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Court rules accountancy firm breached code of ethics in its dealings with a refiner

A former partner at the accounting firm EY has been awarded $10.8m (£8.6m) in damages after being forced out of his job when he exposed professional misconduct during an audit of a Dubai gold refiner.

The high court in London ruled on Friday that EY had repeatedly breached the code of ethics for professional accountants in its dealings with one of its clients, Kaloti Jewellery International.

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