Curator of VBS Bank withdraws fin audit

THE CURATOR of the embattled VBS Mutual Bank said yesterday that the audited annual financial statements of VBS for the year to the end of March 2017 have been withdrawn due to the anomalies in it.

VBS curator Anoosh Rooplal, said the financial statements contain material misstatements and were no longer considered reliable.

“The decision to withdraw the 2017 audited financial statements will not change our focus as curator,” Rooplal said.

“We are still of the view that the curatorship role provides the best mechanism to rehabilitate the bank if possible, and my primary role of stabilising the bank and protecting the interests of depositors remains firm.” The curator also said the bank’s external auditors, KPMG, had been informed of that decision.

SA Reserve Bank deputy governor Kuben Naidoo said last week in an affidavit that VBS could not account for nearly R1 billion deposited with the bank.

The fallout over the failure of VBS has already claimed the scalps of two senior auditors at KPMG, with Sipho Malaba, the auditing firm’s head of its largest business unit (financial services auditing) resigning over the unfolding scandal. Malaba was the lead audit partner on VBS.

Another partner at the firm, Dumi Tshuma, also fell on his sword. Both were accused of not disclosing loans they had with VBS.