There should be a criminal investigation into scandal-hit global auditing company KPMG, South Africa’s finance minister said on Friday as he advised all government departments to review their dealings with the firm.
KPMG is the latest international firm to become embroiled in scandal for its links to three Indian businessmen with close ties to President Jacob Zuma.
The Guptas have been accused of obtaining lucrative contracts in exchange for favours to those in power, and even influencing ministerial appointments.
It is “warranted and critical that the relevant law enforcements (sic) and bodies… look into this matter to identify and sanction those responsible for any wrongdoing”, Malusi Gigaba said.
“As a measure to restore confidence in audits, all of government and its entities must consider reviewing their work programmes with KPMG, to ensure that their audit processes have not been compromised in any way, and to take appropriate steps if it has been compromised," he said.
Among other things, KPMG is alleged to have manipulated a report about South Africa’s tax authority to help oust then finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Last week KPMG announced that it intended to withdraw its report on a probe into the existence of a “rogue spy unit” within Sars, while it said work done for the controversial Gupta family “fell considerably short of KPMG’s standards”.
KPMG South Africa appointed Nhlamu Dlomu as its new chief executive following the resignation of the top leadership of the company, including chief executive Trevor Hoole, chairperson Ahmed Jaffer, chief operating officer Steven Louw and five other senior partners, while it said it was pursuing disciplinary action seeking the dismissal of Jacques Wessels, the lead partner on the audits of the non-listed Gupta entities.
Earlier this month, links to the Guptas caused the British arm of public relations firm Bell Pottinger to collapse.
German software company SAP has also been entangled in allegations of corruption in South Africa.
In a statement on Friday, SAP promised to fully investigate by the end of October, saying: “We owe South Africa an answer.”