According to comments from a Senate Economics Legislation Committee hearing on Friday, ASIC commenced a preliminary investigation into KPMG on April 21st – and entered into two contracts with the embattled auditor less than a month later.
Per AusTender, the first contract is valued at $63,162 and involves “strategic planning consultation services” relating to ASIC’s RegistryConnect program. The second, valued at just under $250,000, is for the development of a digital financial advice report.
Combined with the other six active contracts ASIC has with KPMG, that brings the total to around $3 million.
When asked by Senator Barbara Pocock how ASIC was managing these contracts while simultaneously investigating KPMG, the regulator’s chief executive, Scott Gregson, said that “we continue to manage contracts in accordance with our normal practises and procedures”.
These procedures, Gregson continued, maintain an “appropriate” separation between ASIC’s procurement and enforcement functions. He also clarified that none of the active contracts involve “the company audit areas” ASIC is currently investigating.
As to whether the regulator was concerned about the security of any information shared with KPMG during these projects, Gregson said ASIC has “[sought] assurances of absence and involvement of those persons involved in the matters that are public” and has received an interim response as confirmation.
“We expect a further, more detailed response next week, but the initial response gives us that confirmation,” Gregson said.
Describing ASIC’s involvement with KPMG as a “real concern,” Senator Pocock questioned why the regulator hadn’t “followed the example of the RBA, the ATO and many others” by reviewing its relationship with the group.
“Once we have information about how they’re treating our information and how they’re going to respond to these issues, we’ll consider where we are with KPMG [and] the extent to which it should be relevant for our future procurement activities,” Gregson said.
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