Axed finance minister Pravin Gordhan is preparing for war against KPMG, and said the international audit firm would have to do more than issue a half-hearted statement when the truth came out.
Lashing out at the firm's 11-page statement released on Friday - in which it admitted missing red flags in dealing with Gupta-owned companies and said it was withdrawing its report on the South African Revenue Service "rogue unit" - Gordhan said yesterday that the "facts" would be out in the open soon.
"What actually happened between their forensic investigators and SARS managers from 2015 and onwards [will soon emerge]. We will talk about that in the next 10 days ... When those facts come out, KPMG will have to issue a 10- ... 20-page statement to explain themselves," he said.
"There were a number of problematic instructions and interactions between people in SARS, their lawyers and KPMG investigators, which raises serious concerns over the level of independence that was exercised."Nine senior KPMG staff, including CEO Trevor Hoole, chief operating officer Steven Louw and chairman Ahmed Jaffer, have resigned. KPMG promised to repay the R23-million paid by SARS for the "rogue unit" report and give to charity the R40-million it made from the Gupta-linked accounts.KPMG apologised to Gordhan, but he said this was not enough. He blasted the firm for its "half-hearted, so-called regret" and said its statement was nothing more than a "cover-up". KPMG's flawed report was part of the reason Gordhan was removed as finance minister. It led to him, and others, being the subjects of a Hawks investigation...