Fix auditing crisis, says Manuel
South Africans urged to support KPMG’s recovery process because the country cannot afford further loss of trust
Former finance minister Trevor Manuel said the KPMG saga was a crisis for the audit profession and the economy could not afford a loss of trust in the assurance that auditors provide."We need to turn to the profession and say ‘you need a healing process’. This is a crisis for us and we need to ensure we don’t have a further deterioration in trust," Manuel said at a Deloitte conference on Tuesday.His comments followed the release of the latest World Economic Forum global competitiveness index, which shows SA’s ranking for auditing and reporting standards plummeted from 1 to 30 over the past year.Manuel’s comments were echoed by Deloitte CEO Lwazi Bam, who said: "We take no joy in seeing what’s happening at KPMG. This affects all of us as a profession, and as a profession, we need to introspect."Manuel, who is chairman of Old Mutual, which is due to list on the JSE in 2018, also took aim at the way in which independent auditors cover themselves with "30 or 40 pages" of disclaimers.Bam...
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