In a desperate bid for survival, the auditing giant lied to MPs and Saica, falsely blaming its former head of forensics for having to withdraw part of its SARS rogue unit report.
FORMER FORENSIC ACCOUNTANT AT KPMG, Johan van der Walt, did not copy-and-paste findings drafted by SARS attorneys into his report on the existence of a rogue spy unit within the South African Revenue Service.
The allegation that SARS’s attorneys had dictated the findings and recommendations that appeared at the end of KPMG’s supposed-to-be independent report and that KPMG had simply copied-and-pasted them from a memorandum compiled by the attorneys – was first made two years ago by the Daily Maverick, misguidedly it now transpires. Recently the charge has been resurrected by KPMG itself, against some of its former senior employees, prompting critics to ask: might the reborn charge against auditor Van der Walt, be a reckless ploy by the fallen-from-grace auditing giant to find a scapegoat and stem the flow of multi-million-rand clients who are deserting the sinking ship?
In March this year KPMG’s new forensic head, Roy Waligora, told Parliament’s standing committee on finance that KPMG had lost its objectivity and independence when Van der Walt went “off the grid” and inserted findings by attorneys Mashiane Moodley Monama (MMM) into the final draft of his report three years ago.
But Noseweek can reveal that it was – mostly – the other way round: attorneys MMM had copied Van der Walt’s findings and conclusions scattered about an earlier draft of the auditor’s report, and “pasted” them into their subsequently compiled summary, to be placed at the end of the report.
In his report Van der Walt concluded that an illegal rogue unit had operated within SARS and set out the evidence for this finding. That evidence has not been challenged.
But now, it seems, skullduggery and lies are the order of the day to obfuscate, pass blame and muddy the waters.
Denne historien er fra October 2018-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra October 2018-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.