KPMG’s loss of the Barclays Africa account is a game changer. Estimates suggest that the audit of the bank contributed R138m to KPMG’s revenue in 2017 — far more than any other client it has lost — and about 250 of the firm’s employees worked on the audit. KPMG now faces the very real prospect of going under. SA may well have only three of the traditional "big four" audit firms. It is possible that the other three firms — PwC, Deloitte and EY — as well as their second-tier peers, SizweNtsalubaGobodo, Grant Thornton, BDO and Mazars, will quickly fill the gap left behind by KPMG and absorb the excess employees. But this will be a lengthy, costly and painful process. None of these firms is celebrating the possible demise of KPMG, understanding the negative effect this will have on SA’s economy and the audit profession in the long run. There is talk that senior KPMG employees, not those fingered in any of the firm’s growing scandals, have simply left the country to work for other audit ...
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