KPMG in move to clean house

KPMG South Africa has announced it has suspended a partner and relieved two others of their board and executive positions as the auditing firm begins the process of reviewing their relationship with the controversial Guptas.

Trevor Hoole, the chief executive of KPMG South Africa, said in a statement yesterday his firm would work with KPMG International (KPMGI) to “address the issues raised by various stakeholders regarding the work we previously performed for companies related to the Gupta family.

“Mistakes have been made and painful lessons learnt.”

The review team, the statement said, would be led by a senior partner from the KPMG network, who would report to the KPMGI’s global vice-chair of “quality risk and regulatory” and to the South African board.

“While the last audit opinions for the group were signed for the 28 February 2015 yearends, it is now clear that, based on publicly available information, KPMG should have resigned earlier than March 2016 and should have stopped working for the Gupta companies sooner than we did.

“In my judgment, we were too slow to recognise the wider public interest related to these matters, given the existing socio-political environment in South Africa,” the statement read.

Two other partners had been relieved of their board and executive positions pending the outcome of the review.