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Troubled auditor KPMG on Friday resigned as the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (Saica’s) external auditor.
Saica announced on Friday that it has accepted KPMG’s resignation as its auditor as the institution has been conducting a probe into KPMG accountants.
“The Saica board has accepted KPMG’s offer to resign as Saica’s external auditors, citing possible perceived independence concerns if they were to perform the 2018 audit, as a result of the current Saica-appointed Ntsebeza inquiry, which is looking into some of the former and current KPMG-employed chartered accountants and which will be concluding shortly,” Saica said.
Saica also announced it would be starting a tender process to appoint new external auditors, and its board would table a progress report about it at its annual general meeting later this month.
KPMG has lost millions in fees due to a growing list of clients dumping the company.
The move by KPMG and Saica to part ways comes less than a month before the Saica inquiry is set to submit its findings.
Local companies that have given KPMG the boot include Deneb Investments, Sygnia Asset Management, Sasfin bank, energy investment company Hulisani and Wits University.
Last month, the auditing firm lost Sibanye Stillwater, Barclays Africa, Redefine Properties and the Industrial Development Corporation as clients.
Mutual bank Finbond this week announced in a notice to shareholders that its board of directors could not justify “further association with KPMG”.
In April, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu terminated, with immediate effect, the government’s auditing contracts with KPMG.
KPMG’s audit of VBS Mutual Bank, placed into curatorship, was the final straw for the Auditor-General.
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