KPMG defies powerful Senate committee at the 11th hour
The leaders of a high-profile consulting firm face questioning from a powerful federal oversight committee after making an 11th-hour decision to withhold information from their interrogators.
KPMG, which has more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer-funded government contracts, is feeling the heat over an audit leak scandal and its treatment of a whistleblower, raising concerns about its governance and integrity frameworks.
He told the committee ahead of Friday’s hearing that he would not provide requested documents related to those matters because they were confidential, subject to professional privilege and could undermine the “administration of justice.”
“We appreciate that this is not the response the committee was seeking,” Chairman Martin Sheppard wrote in an op-ed. letter It was tabled by committee chairwoman Deborah O’Neill of the Labor Party.
“We are committed to engaging with the committee in an open and collaborative manner, but we need to balance this with the legal rights of the parties and the need for due process.”
Senate Clerk Richard Pye told Senator O’Neill: reply that parliament could investigate KPMG for potential contempt if further attempts to release the documents are rejected.
Senator O’Neill will respond to KPMG’s decision on Friday.
But committee member and Greens senator Barbara Pocock said Australians expected KPMG to be transparent.
“If KPMG decides to use their legal privilege to evade transparency and accountability, they will be showing complete contempt for parliament and the Australian people,” he told AAP.
Senator Pocock referred KPMG to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
KPMG, one of the world’s four largest consultancies, is accused of sharing confidential corporate client information internally and mishandling complaints from an alarmed staff member to win audit tenders in 2023.
KPMG Australia boss Andrew Yates and head of audit Julian McPherson resigned over the whistleblowing issue.
KPMG also launched a new independent review into its practices and apologized to the whistleblower.
Mr Yates and Mr McPherson will be among 35 witnesses appearing before the Joint Committee on Corporate and Financial Services in Canberra at the continuation of the corporate regulator’s oversight hearing on May 29.
First up will be Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo, who confirmed in a letter to the committee in April that its auditor KPMG had contacted the construction company in 2025 about a whistleblower’s allegations.
These included that “various staff” used information in board documents to bid for other audits.
At the time, KPMG told Lendlease there were “no issues” before saying this year that the documents had been reviewed by a team bidding for the Westpac audit and that it had won.
“Lendlease notified KPMG that its employees’ actions were unacceptable,” Mr. Lombardo wrote.
The company plans to put the audit contract out to tender in 2027.
The resulting political storm focused on privacy issues, given that KPMG handled sensitive utility contracts for the federal and various state governments.
Much of Friday’s hearing will be dominated by evidence from 13 KPMG leaders, including Mr Sheppard and Australia’s interim boss Stan Stavros.
Meanwhile, the finance department has set up its own review and imposed a three-month moratorium on KPMG’s tenders for new contracts.
The federal government has 297 active contracts with KPMG worth $653 million.
It is not the first time Australia’s professional services sector has come under scrutiny.
In 2023, it was revealed that PwC was sharing confidential government information with potential clients.
He was barred from taking out new contracts for more than a year and was eventually forced to sell his government consulting business for $1.
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