The mess spilling out of KPMG Australia’s rolling whistleblower scandal has delivered no shortage of talking points in corporate and political circles, particularly after the saga forced the resignation of the firm’s CEO, Andrew Yates, last week.

So it was only natural that attention would at some point return to the departure of former NSW premier Mike Baird, who stepped down as a non-executive director at KPMG last September without so much as a peep from the firm at the time.

Baird’s departure was the subject of intrigue in April, when he quietly removed mention of the KPMG directorship from his LinkedIn profile, which The Australian Financial Review noted at the time.

More interesting to us, though, were the circumstances of his departure. The former premier, as a director of the accounting giant’s local board, was among those informed of the whistleblower complaint, CBD hears, and was displeased by the way it was handled, even if it wasn’t the driver of his departure.

KPMG didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication, and Baird declined to comment.

For those playing along at home: The KPMG whistleblower first made a complaint in 2024 containing dozens of allegations. As this masthead has previously reported, the claims alleged KPMG partners illicitly accessed board papers from a client, the construction giant Lendlease, which were used to win lucrative audit work for other big companies, including Westpac.

KPMG launched an internal investigation,...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiygFBVV95cUxONENhVHVta0R3bHRFUnc3aHk3...