KPMG contract won’t be renewed, says Wits

THE University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Council has resolved not to renew contracts with KPMG South Africa for internal auditing and risk management services.

The contracts lapse at the end of the 2017 financial year.

The move by the university is a fresh blow to the embattled audit firm, which continues to lose clients over its controversial report on a “rogue spy unit” within the SA Revenue Service and also being implicated in covering money laundering in Gupta-owned businesses.

KPMG SA has since axed former chief executive Trevor Hoole, chairperson Ahmed Jaffer and chief operating officer Steven Louw.

Nhlamu Dlomu was subsequently appointed the chief executive.

Wits said its audit and council risk committees acknowledged that KPMG did take some actions, including releasing the chief executive, chief operating officer and a number of senior partners to mitigate against reputation damage suffered as a result of its relationship with Guptaassociated companies and its complicity in the Sars report, but felt that it had not gone far enough.

“Further, it was agreed that KPMG had not been sufficiently transparent and that it is hard to reconcile KPMG’s conclusion that no one did anything illegal, when senior individuals have been dismissed and the Sars report has been retracted,” Wits spokesperson, Erna van Wyk, said.

“In these circumstances, the council believes that it would have been prudent to acknowledge the ethical and legal lapses of KPMG’s senior management team.

“Further, the company should have embarked on programmes to correct the wrongs that have been done to individuals and institutions. The council also believes that an independent investigation should have been initiated at the outset.”

Van Wyk said audit firm PWC will remain the university’s external auditors.