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KPMG International’s incoming chief executive has apologised for the treatment of a whistleblower who exposed a data misuse scandal at its Australian operation.
Gary Wingrove, who previously ran KPMG Australia and this year won the race to succeed Bill Thomas as head of the global organisation, appeared by video link from London at an Australian Senate hearing on Friday.
He apologised for the treatment of the whistleblower, who raised concerns about the actions of senior audit partners in Sydney with the firm’s global bosses. “I’m sorry personally. I’m a human being, the whistleblower is a human being. I’m sorry for what that person has gone through,” Wingrove said.
In a statement tabled at the hearing, the whistleblower argued that the global arm of KPMG would not investigate allegations that concerned the leadership of a member firm.
“The most serious failure is not local. It is global,” the statement read. “In effect it does not care. That is the opposite of what its own policies and public representations promise to people and its clients around the world.”
Wingrove’s appearance capped a fractious day-long hearing in Canberra. KPMG is at the centre of a growing storm after a senator used parliamentary privilege in March to air allegations made by a whistleblower that the firm had accessed and shared confidential audit information to bid for contracts with some...
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