KPMG’s chairman Martin Sheppard and two senior partners will quit the firm, becoming the latest leaders to resign over the consultancy’s handling of whistleblower allegations that it misused confidential client information.

Sheppard will be replaced by an independent chairman, while two other senior KPMG partners, Paul Rogers and former chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett, will also leave the company.

KPMG Australia’s interim chief executive Stan Stavros said “the decisions announced today are necessary and immediate”.

“We did not meet the standards expected of us, and we recognise the impact this has had on the whistleblower, our people, our clients and the community.”

Sheppard’s appearance before a public Senate committee hearing on Friday proved to be the final straw for KPMG partners who had watched the firm’s disastrous response to the scandal unfold.

This includes Sheppard being forced to backflip on KPMG’s use of legal professional privilege to shield documents relating to its interactions with law firms Ashurst and Allens over the matter.

Rogers and Hoggett were both implicated in one of the most serious breaches identified so far: gaining access to confidential Lendlease board documents, including rival bids to audit the company. Lendlease chairman John Gillam described that as a “grave misuse of their access privileges” on Friday.

Both Rogers and Hoggett have previously been fined by KPMG over the matter. Neither has commented while the scandal has played out....

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMixAFBVV95cUxOUzRSbzhxaXVudTdRcS0zMU1l...