Incoming KPMG chairman Michael Ebeid has been forced to apologise just hours into his tenure, after emails emerged in which he described a Senate speech that brought whistleblower allegations against the firm to light as containing “completely false” information.
On Thursday, the parliamentary committee looking into the scandal released an email from Ebeid to other KPMG board members sent just after Labor senator Deborah O’Neill’s March speech publicising the whistleblower’s allegations that the firm had misused confidential audit information.
“As we know well, many of the statements she makes are completely false including the timeline of events and that he had raises (sic) all these Whistleblower issues before he entered the HR process to exit the firm, which falsely makes it look like retaliation,” Ebeid said in the email dated March 25.
When Ebeid’s appointment as chair – which still needs to be formalised – was publicly confirmed on Thursday morning, he said he would “would make integrity central to everything we do, and drive the cultural and governance reforms.”
On Thursday afternoon, Ebeid was forced to make an apology, saying he was not aware of the full facts when he sent the email and now recognised the gravity of the whistleblower’s claims and the shortcomings of KPMG’s response. “From what I now know and the information I have been provided since that time, I would not have written that email and am sorry for sending it,” he said.
Greens senator Barbara...
KUALA TERENGGANU: Three Rahmah Sales Programme (PJRM) operators in Terengganu have been suspended after being found guilty of violating operational guidelines, including submitting false subsidy c...