The authors of a report designed to document KPMG’s whistleblower failings qualified their findings on the basis that they were unable to interview key staff – including the whistleblower – and found gaps in the accounting firm’s records of crucial meetings.
Boutique advisory Andrews Group, which penned the report published on Thursday, said it conducted interviews and relied on public and internal documents from KPMG, but admitted this exercise, “despite providing rich information, still left gaps”.
“Some individuals who were associated with and played a pivotal role in the disclosures were, for a variety of reasons, unable to be interviewed. This included the whistleblower,” they said.
The report found that KPMG adopted an overly legalistic approach to the complaints levelled against the firm and failed to uphold its core values, which led to the poor treatment of the whistleblower.
KPMG has been under siege after admitting that some of its staff accessed confidential information from corporate clients to win business – a serious breach of the trust in the world of auditing that is essential to the integrity of financial markets.
The consultancy confirmed that former employees associated with the whistleblower scandal were unable to be interviewed. The firm has yet to respond to this masthead’s question of whether current employees declined to talk to the report’s authors.
The report, which had been commissioned and paid for by the embattled accounting firm, noted there...
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