Review all work done with KPMG, says ‘concerned’ Gigaba in sa

Parliament – Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Friday instructed staff at all government departments to review all work done for the State by auditing firm KPMG, this after the furore over the company’s report into the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

In a media statement, Gigaba said he was deeply concerned. He added the the debacle around KPMG showed it was time for regulations to govern auditing firms, both in the private and private sectors, in an effort to ensure and preserve the integrity and good governance in the audit fraternity.

“In the immediate term, and as a measure to restore confidence in audits, all of government and its entities must consider reviewing their work programmes with KPMG, to ensure that their audit processes have not been compromised in any way, and to take appropriate steps if it has been compromised.”

Gigaba said these new developments had created a bad image and had undermined the reputation of good governance and audit independence in one of the key sectors and institutions in the South African economy.

Last week KPMG announced that it intended to withdraw its report on a probe into the existence of a “rogue spy unit” within Sars, while it said work done for the controversial Gupta family “fell considerably short of KPMG’s standards”.

KPMG South Africa appointed Nhlamu Dlomu as its new chief executive following the resignation of the top leadership of the company, including chief executive Trevor Hoole, chairperson Ahmed Jaffer, chief operating officer Steven Louw and five other senior partners, while it said it was pursuing disciplinary action seeking the dismissal of Jacques Wessels, the lead partner on the audits of the non-listed Gupta entities.