FOI documents reveal PM&C is monitoring risks linked to KPMG’s appointment as internal auditor amid an ethical controversy involving the firm.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has embattled accounting firm KPMG handling internal audit under a contract that runs to February, a fresh tranche of documents released under FOI reveals.
KPMG Australia is one of two firms handling internal audit for the Prime Minister’s Department — the identity of the other firm is redacted. It was selected from an audit services panel provided by the Australian National Audit Office, and the two contracts contain two optional 12-month extensions.
These documents related to the initial reaction by PM&C to the audit and ethical controversy that has enveloped the Big Four accounting firm since Senator Deborah O’Neill revealed some of the firm’s most senior audit practitioners broke ethical rules and shared confidential client documents to help attempt win new audit work in a speech earlier this year.