KPMG shouldn’t be allowed to come back from its high-level corruption, but no one should hold their breath on that front. Photo: KPMG.
The biggest disgrace in the political, corporate and public sector worlds right now can be boiled down to four letters – KPMG.
There is no way back from the reprehensible gutter-tactic behaviour of the accountancy giant which, by its own forced admission, has acted so corruptly it should never be trusted again.
But it will be trusted, by the Federal Government and the Australian Public Service that can’t seem to act honourably enough themselves as to completely cut ties with this grubby corporation.
KPMG currently enjoys plenty of lucrative Commonwealth contracts, including the preposterous ongoing one to teach rising public sector leaders all about integrity.
That’s a worthless course.
But far worse than that is the character and ethics of all those who played any part in the corruption that allowed, encouraged and ensured that confidential client information for major audits was deceitfully misused to win more work and make them all richer.
It is compounded by the firm’s abuse of a whistleblower for raising the issue.
Compounded further by the latest revelations, the firm has been misleading parliament in hearings and trying to cover up the depths to which it has stooped to win contracts.
As executives and partners continue to exit the company one way or another since the scandal broke, they are now using appearances before parliamentary inquiries to blame each other.
KPMG deputy general counsel James McClelland told Friday’s hearing (14 August) that KPMG partners had basically lied to him about his initial investigations into the claims that documents were being misused.
The firm’s new independent chairman Michael Ebeid, however, said he felt “uncomfortable” about the “levels of aggression” in the letters he had seen Mr McClelland had sent to the whistleblower.
Former KPMG chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett, who was sacked once the story broke, tried to rely on the excuse of memory loss over her storing confidential Lendlease documents in her locker and inappropriately sharing them to win work from competitors.
Email evidence proves that’s what happened, but Ms Hogget says she can’t remember doing it.
She was also not too happy about being forced out of the firm soon after it brought in a new CEO.
Here are a few quotes from her evidence while under examination in the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services hearing on Friday.
“I think it is very regrettable that this new information has only come to light in the last couple of weeks, and I take full accountability for my role that might have played in that … I’ve not been dishonest at all through any of the investigations.
“I don’t actually recall printing those documents and storing them in my locker.
“Clearly this email conveys that there were Lendlease documents that were stored in my locker … but I am not aware that the documents were distributed widely or used to win audit work.”
Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill then put it quite bluntly: “Who else is responsible, Ms Hoggett, if it’s not you?”
Ms Hoggett responded with: “I have to take full accountability, Senator, for anything that’s in my locker.”
Outgoing partner Kim Lawry claimed she didn’t even know confidential information about Lendlease was being stored when she took a screenshot of board papers with information useful to rival firms, including Westpac, which it was pitching to at the time.
“I don’t recall being aware that it was confidential at the time,” she said.
“[It] was not of use or particular relevance to me, and it wasn’t used in the Westpac audit tender.”
Liberal senator Paul Scarr accused Mr Lawry of committing “an egregious breach of professional standards”, which she denied.
“It reminds me of a burglar going into the house, stealing a jewellery box, coming outside, and finding, ‘Oh, there’s only 50 cents in it’. It’s still burglary,” Senator Scarr said.
Both Ms Hoggett and Ms Lawry were accused of lying to the firm by KPMG deputy chair Carmel Mortell.
Senator O’Neill asked Ms Hoggett if she felt like a fall guy.
Ms Hoggett replied: “It’s not fair for me to speculate why the firm took that action on the third day of a new CEO without any engagement. But what I would say is that I am still trying to engage with the firm to ascertain why they took that action.”
Greens finance and public service spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock described KPMG’s leaders as “gold class exemplars of greed trumping ethics at every turn”.
She has called for a complete overhaul of the regulations that govern the Big Four consultancy firms.
“The parliament heard evidence today of a repetitive pattern of unethical behaviour by KPMG leadership,” Senator Pocock said.
“They have misled the parliament and the public, and drip-fed us self-congratulatory whitewash and misinformation.
“At the same time, they take taxpayers for mugs and milk us for hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts.”
It really is time to make an example of such high-level corruption.
KPMG should be made to feel like the pathetic pariah it actually is.
But who at the highest levels of the Federal Government has the integrity – and the guts – to make that happen?
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
