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Cape Town – KPMG International’s comprehensive review of the South African auditor, following allegations that former CEO Moses Kgosana had a cosy relationship with the Guptas, will be complete by the end of September.
KPMG spokesperson Nqubeko Sibiya gave this assurance to Fin24 on Thursday, following two developments related to the embattled auditor.
Firstly, The Institute of Directors (IoDSA) announced it is temporarily suspending all co-branded activities with the auditing firm on Thursday. The IoDSA said in a statement that it met KPMG to discuss the allegations and the board decided to temporarily suspend among others sponsorship of its golf day and involvement in the audit committee forum, while investigations are underway.
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Secondly, Imperial announced on Thursday that Kgosana was stepping down as chairperson of its audit committee, but he will remain on the board. This comes after Kgosana resigned from Alexander Forbes in July, a month before he was set to be appointed chairperson.
“In light of the investigation by the audit regulator in respect of KPMG, where Mr Kgosana was the previous chief executive officer and senior partner, he and the board believe this is the most appropriate course of action, and in line with good corporate governance until such investigation has been completed,” Imperial said in a statement on Thursday.
Both incidents on Thursday were related to a #GuptaLeaks expose in June, which revealed how the Free State provincial government largely picked up the tab for a lavish Gupta family wedding at Sun City. KPMG was allegedly involved in siphoning taxpayer money to pay for the affair.
KPMG International has since undertaken an independent and comprehensive review of the issue.
“The review team is being led by an experienced senior partner from the KPMG network with Norton Rose Fulbright as external legal counsel, and support from various experts including appropriate Senior Counsel, to provide independent, expert, external views and opinions,” explained Sibiya.
“KPMG International will make its findings known, and the target date of completion is end of September 2017.”
Denying Fin24 an interview, Sibiya said engagement with media will be more comprehensive once the review has been finalised.
Reacting to the IoDSA development, Sibiya said KPMG appreciated that the IoDSA is allowing KPMG International the opportunity to complete its comprehensive internal review before they make a standing decision on co-branding.
“In the interim, the IoDSA have obtained other sponsorships for their Golf Day, which is proceeding. As regards the IoDSA audit and risk committee, the IoDSA website and integrated report reflects the composition of their board committee, none of whom are a director or employee of KPMG.
“With this in mind, we would like to point it out to you that the media reports around this particular story are both misleading and incorrect. The IoDSA has not suspended KPMG from its audit committee. The firm has never served on the IoDSA audit committee. KPMG is not a member of the IoDSA – individuals are members of the IoDSA, not organisations.”
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