KPMG: What lessons have we learnt?
- Wits University
Auditors, accountants and lawyers came under fire for their role in corruption and state capture during a debate looking at lessons from the KPMG saga.
Auditors, accountants and lawyers came under fire for their role in corruption and state capture during a debate hosted by the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management titled KPMG: What have we learnt?
Pravin Gordhan, Nonkululeko Gobodo and Iraj Abedian were joined by Professor Imraan Valodia and Nhlanhla Nene during the debate on Wednesday.
Disgraced auditing and financial advisory firm KPMG is under criticism for deliberately producing flawed auditing reports that have been used to protect state capture and promote the looting of national resources.
How did this happen when South Africa has one of the best frameworks for regulating professions in the financial sector?
The audit sector is one of the most regulated but we often forget human nature (greed), which requires ethics, said Gobodo, Chief Executive of Nkululeko Leadership Consulting.
This view was supported by economist and fellow panellist, Abedian: “South Africa used to be a model of good economic governance. Today we are embarrassed”.
Abedian argued continued to argue that state capture is essentially the capture of national resources.
Former minister of finance Gordhan Pravin Gordhan tackled systematic challenges, growing inequality and the stagnant economy.