Former executives of a multinational auditing firm found leaking confidential material to win lucrative contracts have defended their conduct at a Senate inquiry.
KPMG has been engulfed in scandal since March, when Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill shared whistleblower allegations against the firm with parliament.
They included claims KPMG partners accessed confidential information from client Lendlease to pitch for and win high-paying audit contracts.
The allegations led the firm’s chief executive to resign and its national chair and audit partners to leave the company, and sparked a sector-wide investigation by the corporate watchdog.
Four of the five ex-KPMG executives before the inquiry have taken a voluntary retirement package, except for former chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett who was expelled in late July.
“I am still currently trying to ascertain and understand the basis of my expulsion from the firm,” she told the inquiry on Friday.
The expulsion voids Ms Hoggett’s accrued annual leave and a retirement pension, despite working 33 years at the firm.
KPMG expelled Ms Hoggett after evidence emerged she had stored printed copies of confidential documents in her personal locker and shared them with colleagues to win audit contracts.
Ms Hoggett defended her conduct in the investigation to date but could not confirm if she printed and stored the Lendlease documents.
“I’m not here to defend or minimise the fact that the documents were printed and put in my locker,” Ms Hoggett told the inquiry.
“But I am not aware that the documents were distributed widely or used to win new work.”
Ms Hoggett said only her and her personal assistant had access to the locker.
Both former chairman Martin Sheppard and former chief executive Andrew Yates said they had not seen an email in which Ms Hoggett told her personal assistant to show a colleague the printed copy “sensitively, without letting too many people know”.
Mr Sheppard reiterated his disappointment with how the whistleblower scandal has been managed.
Ms Hoggett said the culture of promotion in KPMG was not built solely on bringing in more money and said she never heard the concerns raised by the whistleblower directly.
The scandal has seen major clients reconsidering their audit contracts with KPMG.
Former RBA governor and Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens told the inquiry earlier on Friday he is awaiting answers to determine whether the bank will maintain a $700 million contract with KPMG.
Investigations into the auditing giant has reignited calls for the government to strengthen whistleblower-protection laws from committee members such as Greens Senator Barbara Pocock.
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