DA welcomes finance committee hearing on dodgy audits of Gupta entities conducted by KPMG

19 September 2017

On 13 September 2017, I requested that the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, schedule a hearing with the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, which is responsible for regulating registered auditors and registered audit firms, in South Africa.

The request was aimed at monitoring progress being made by the regulator on a number of investigations including, most importantly, the existing investigation being conducted into the audit of Linkway Trading (Pty) Ltd, a company allegedly involved in tax evasion, in relation to the Gupta family wedding at Sun City in 2013.

The findings of KPMG International’s investigation, which were subsequently made public on 15 September 2017, make the hearing even more pressing, given the fact that the investigation:

- Established that “management of many Gupta entities responded misleadingly and inadequately to audit teams enquires about the nature of related party relationships and the commercial substance of significant unusual transactions”; and

- Identified “a series of misrepresentations from the client over the period that KPMG South Africa provided tax advice.”

We are, therefore, pleased that it has now been confirmed that the  Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors, Bernard Agulhas, will appear before the Standing Committee to brief us on progress with investigations into various audits, including the investigation into the audit of Linkway Trading (Pty) Ltd, on 03 October 2017 in Parliament.

Issued by David Maynier, DA Shadow Minister of Finance, 19 September 2017