Scrutiny landed on KPMG’s first investigation into whistleblower allegations after the parliamentary joint committee questioned a limited interviewing process, finding that it was said that “there is no such thing as a Chinese wall”.
It was revealed at the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services at the KPMG ethics and accountability public hearing on Friday (14 August) that the big four firm had not relied on staff lower than the partner level due to a host of reasons, despite its outgoing general counsel saying that they would have done things differently.
The committee heard that KPMG’s legal representative, Allens, relied only on 14 interviews of partners in its investigation into whistleblower allegations, with each lasting half an hour each.
Allens partner Christopher Kerrigan told the committee: “We didn’t interview in our first investigation people below partner level in relation to the Lendlease board paper allegation.”
When questioned as to why KPMG allowed this to happen, resigning KPMG general counsel Louise Capon told the committee that they had discussed this with their legal representatives and came to the conclusion not to interview non-partners.
Capon said that with the benefit of hindsight, they should have done things differently.
KPMG deputy chair Carmel Mortell told the committee that she apologises for this, and in hindsight, she would have called for interviews with junior staff.
Former CEO Andrew Yates said...
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