And you think recruiters and resume writers were unethical? Checkout this mob. This edited story was sourced from the SMH. Written by Sandra Danckert.
The Australian arm of one of the world’s biggest accounting firms, KPMG, was fined $613,000 by the US accounting watchdog, after a review found widespread cheating by staff on training tests over a four-year period.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) revealed that more than 1,100 staff – including 250 auditors –at KPMG’s Australian offices shared answers to pass mandatory training courses on professional independence, auditing and accounting, including tests to maintain accounting licences.
Hang on. The auditors cheated? I’m feeling a bit Enron; a bit Arthur Andersen.
The fine comes amid serious concerns about the quality of Australian auditing standards and the independence of the “Big 4” accounting groups, which includes KPMG.
I wrote a freelance story on this sort of corruption – because that’s what it is – but InDaily was too cowardly to publish it. Why? It’s major advertisers were the ‘Big 4’.
“From 2016 until early 2020, KPMG Australia violated PCAOB rules and quality control standards related to integrity and personnel management by failing to establish appropriate policies and procedures for administering and monitoring training tests, including tests designed to help the firm’s audit professionals satisfy the requirements for maintaining their accounting licenses,” the PCAOB ruling says.
In total, about 12 per cent of KPMG’s Australian staff members were involved in sharing answers to help colleagues pass the tests.