KPMG the latest example of accountants being unaccountable

KPMG is the latest accounting firm to be at the centre of a global scandal emanating from its Australian operations. (Four Corners) Link copiedShareShare articleBean counters have often received a bad rap. Before the arrival of "celebrity accountants", the keepers of the books were often looked down upon as nerdy and, well, unexciting. Who could forget Mr Anchovy's ill-conceived visit to the vocations guidance counsellor in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. When advised that his ideal career would be an accountant, Anchovy retorts that that is exactly what he's been doing for years. "It's dull, dull, dull. My God, it's dull. It's so deadly tedious and stuffy and boring and desperately dull. I can't stand it any longer. I want to live," he says. To which the counsellor responds: "Well, yes, Mr Anchovy, but your report here says that you are an extremely dull person." Far from being drab and unimaginative, accountants and auditors these days regularly grace the halls of infamy, relegating even entrepreneurs at the more exciting end of the business world to second place when it comes to risky behaviour. In more recent years, instead of balancing columns of numbers, the books have become highly imaginative works of fiction. And now this. Subterfuge, intrigue and the alleged misuse of confidential information for personal gain. KPMG is the latest to be at the centre of a global scandal emanating from its Australian operations. Former and current senior leaders from KPMG will be grilled over their conduct at a parliamentary hearing this Friday. It is accused of using information obtained in audits of its clients that it knew was off limits to win new business. Just three years ago, PwC, while advising Australian Treasury, was embroiled in a global uproar after leaking secret government plans for new anti-avoidance tax laws, in order to help multinational clients avoid those very laws. KPMG, like many big firms before it, has dug itself an even deeper hole as evidence mounts that it ignored a whistleblower and actively sought to suppress the scandal. They're now called the Big Four. But once, they were the Big Five. That was until the tech wreck and the stock crash of 2000. Arthur Andersen, then the world's biggest accounting firm, was the auditor of Enron, the US energy giant that went bust owing huge amounts of money. Arthur Andersen was accused of hiding debts and later shredding documents to avoid the prosecution that ultimately led to the firm's collapse. The firm was also Bond Corporation's auditor and faced a $500 million lawsuit for its shoddy audit work on the collapsed multinational. Since then, the accounting scandals have come thick and fast in Australia. EY, KPMG and PwC came under intense scrutiny following the collapse of Babcock & Brown, Allco Equity and Centro during the global financial crisis, often through the misstatement of debts. PwC was fined $60 million in 2018, but such penalties are rarely dispensed. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts) PwC was fined $60 million by the corporate regulator for its handling of the collapsed Storm Financial, but audit firms generally have been treated lightly — if they are punished at all — by regulators, even after egregious examples of unprofessional behaviour have been revealed in court. Of the three big collapses during the GFC, Babcock & Brown alone torched $10 billion of investor and lender cash. And no-one was admonished. It's become a recurring pattern. Serious breaches of the law with little or no consequences. Peter Collins, the PwC tax partner at the centre of the Federal Treasury leaks, received a ban from ASIC for his actions. But an Australian Federal Police investigation into his actions has yielded nothing. Audit work generally is a low-paying business, a loss leader for the firm to get its tentacles inside for the more lucrative consulting work. During the last 20 years Australia has become a gold mine for the Big Four, partly for their work in the corporate world, but to a large extent for the extraordinary fees they reap from governments both at a federal and state level. When John Howard won office in 1996, he was determined to cut the cost of government by slimming down the public service. By all accounts, he was hugely successful, shedding upwards of 30,000 public servants. There was just one problem: someone else was needed to do the work. Sensing an opportunity, each of the Big Four expanded their consultancy and advisory businesses to help the government run the country. At a cost. While exact amounts are difficult to determine, in the decade to 2023 — when PwC was caught leaking federal Treasury secrets — the Australian and state government had forked out more than $10 billion to the Big Four. The biggest client of all was the Department of Defence. It splurged almost $4 billion of taxpayer money on thousands of contracts with EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG. Just the area where secrecy is paramount. It began back in Ma

KPMG the latest example of accountants being unaccountable

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