BREAKINGVIEWS-KPMG's self-destruction puts Big Four on notice
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Antony Currie
MELBOURNE, June 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Allegations of abuse of confidential data in Australia has cost the auditing firm its Asia Pacific chair, local CEO, other execs, and top clients' trust. Recovery will be hard. Coming so soon after a PwC scandal, the mess ought to prompt an overhaul of the industry Down Under.
Full view will be published shortly.
Follow Antony Currie on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
CONTEXT NEWS
KPMG Australia Chair Martin Sheppard resigned on June 23, the latest casualty of a whistleblower scandal that went public in March when Labor Party Senator Deborah O'Neill used parliamentary privilege to raise the issues that a former employee of the Big Four accounting firm's operations first took to the company in 2024. Sheppard is also stepping down as chair of KMPG's Asia-Pacific operations.
On the same day, the Australian unit announced it would appoint an independent chair and add more independent board members as part of a broader overhaul of the company's governance, culture, ethics and controls. It also said it had appointed Principia Advisory to conduct an external review of the firm's whistleblower procedures.
Two audit partners, Paul Rogers and Eileen Hoggett, are also leaving the company. On June 18 KPMG fined both of them for their role in the audit the whistleblower flagged. Hoggett had already stepped down from her position as chief operating officer at the start of June.
The scandal has already cost the firm its CEO, Andrew Yates, and its head of audit and assurance, Julian McPherson, who both resigned on May 29.