One of the four biggest professional services companies in the world, KPMG was criticised recently for its report on the alleged SA Revenue Service (Sars) "rogue" unit, creating a standoff between Treasury and the tax collector.
When Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was reappointed in December, he criticised KPMG over the leaked report. "It's allegations that have no foundation. They are based on a leaked document that even I haven't seen," he said.
"How would you like to be accused of something on the basis of a document that has not been put to you or… questions that have not been put to you, on the basis of no opportunity having been put to you to say what the facts of the matter are? One thing I would like to request from you is to stop reporting on rumours."
On Wednesday Gordhan said the Sikhakhane Panel finding that the establishment of the unit contravened the National Strategic Intelligence Act was wrong and based on a superficial and clearly mistaken reading of the aforementioned Act.
Read also: Gordhan responds to Hawks – SARS 'spy unit' was lawful
"As far as I was aware, the unit lawfully performed its functions," he said. "My legal advice is that the establishment unit was lawful."
In the KPMG report, which says the creation of the unit was unlawful, it failed to interview the people that were allegedly guilty.
"Their report contains large chunks of text delivered to them in correspondence by a firm of lawyers acting for Sars," Business Day editor-in-chief Peter Bruce wrote in his column recently. "And then they instructed their own clients that their report must not be used against those people.
"The reputational damage this could do to a brand as big as KPMG is enormous, particularly if, as is possible, this investigation is one day tested in court and found to have no merit," he said. – Fin24
Source: http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Financial-Services/kpmg-cuts-ties-with-gupta-business-empire-20160331