Today, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has published an email from newly appointed KPMG independent chair Mr Michael Ebeid to his fellow directors and others.
The letter raises serious concerns about his suitability to fix the ethical and integrity disasters that have been revealed in KPMG. Further, it illustrates his disrespect to the whistleblower, who bravely surfaced these failures, and to the Parliament and its members.
Mr Ebeid's appointment as independent chair at KPMG Australia was announced this morning. His appointment comes in the wake of multiple KPMG scandals, including sharing confidential client information to win audit tenders, using AI to cheat on internal exams, breaching audit independence, misleading the parliament and mistreating the whistleblower who raised these concerns.
The Greens say Mr Ebeid has shown a flagrant disregard for the parliament and his appointment as KPMG 'independent' chair does not bode well for a cleanup at KPMG.
As stated by Greens finance and public service spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock:
"Mr Ebeid's letter shows his lack of respect for whistleblowers and the Parliament. His words reveal his willingness to attempt to exercise inappropriate influence on senators and committee processes. They also indicate his depth of knowledge and pre-formed views about events within KPMG and its whistleblowers allegations.
"Mr Ebeid has firm and dismissive views about the whistleblower and the...
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