By: JurmoloyaRava
SOUTH AFRICA’S tax agency on Monday (18) accused KPMG of “unethical” and “unlawful” behaviour in withdrawing a report that suggested the former finance minister ran a rogue unit to spy on political leaders.
The global auditor cleared out its South African leadership en masse last Friday (15) after damning findings from an internal investigation into work done for businessmen friends of president Jacob Zuma.
KPMG’s investigation into its work for the Guptas, accused by a public watchdog of improperly influencing government contracts, identified no evidence of crimes or corruption, but found that work done for Gupta family firms “fell considerably short of KPMG’s standards”, the auditor said in a statement.
In particular, it acknowledged “flaws” in a report that it compiled for South Africa’s tax service, which implied that former finance minister Pravin Gordhan had helped set up a “rogue spy unit” when he was head of the service.
Gordhan, subsequently sacked as finance minister by Zuma, said the report had damaged South Africa’s young democracy, and that he was considering legal steps.
KPMG became the third global firm to be damaged by work carried out for the Indian-born brothers after the business consultancy McKinsey and the public relations agency Bell Pottinger, whose British business collapsed last week.
Both Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing and say they are victims of a politically motivated witch-hunt. The Guptas and their companies have not been charged with any crime.
On Monday, however, South African Revenue Services (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane defended KPMG’s original report and accused the firm of “abhorrent, unethical, and unprofessional conduct” in withdrawing it.
“I want to say the report by KPMG is not flawed. In fact the report from KPMG confirms conclusively, deeply so, that there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in this organisation (SARS),” he told a news conference.
[TheChamp-Sharing]
