Brought to account... Fined KPMG faces new probe

SCANDAL-HIT KPMG faces a fresh probe into the collapse of yet another big firm it was paid to keep an eye on.

Industry watchdog the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced it was investigating the accountancy giant’s dealing with drinks firm Conviviality, which went into administration in April.

Bargain Booze owner Conviviality was brought down by a £30million tax bill that had seemingly been missed.

The probe will focus on KPMG’S audit of Conviviality’s accounts for the year to the end of April last year.

It is the latest investigation to hit KPMG, which last month was slapped with a £4.5million fine by the FRC over its audit of insurance firm Quindell.

It has also been criticised over the collapse of construction and outsourcing giant Carillion, whose accounts it checked for 19 years.

Carillion went under with £900m of debts and left industry body the Pension Protection Fund with a record bill of at least £800m to rescue its retirement scheme.

KPMG said it had not begun checking Conviviality’s accounts for the 12 months to April this year, when the £30m tax demand emerged, at the time of its collapse.

It stressed: “We believe we conducted our audit appropriately and will co-operate fully with the investigation.”

The probe comes amid calls for Britain’s Big Four accountancy firms – KPMG, plus PWC, Deloitte and EY – to be broken up.

A Parliamentary report last month accused the firms of “prioritising their own profits ahead of good governance”.

The Mirror revealed in May how the big accountancy firms had bagged more than £1billion worth of government contracts at the start of 2015.

Of the four companies, KPMG has been awarded the most, with 99 contracts worth £280million.

Firm has already been ordered to pay a £4.5m charge