Following KPMG, the major accountancy firms PwC, Deloitte and EY are also conducting internal investigations into possible exam fraud. They confirm that NRC.
KPMG published last Friday the first results from an ongoing internal investigation, which showed that over the past five years, more than a hundred employees per year have been cheating internal tests by exchanging answers.
Sanctions were imposed on several employees and “a number of colleagues will be said goodbye in view of their involvement and position,” KPMG reported in a press release. A spokesperson does not want to say how many employees and what sanctions are involved. Accountants are required by law to regularly attend training courses and take tests if they wish to retain their protected title.
Internal research
It now appears that the other three firms from the so-called Big Four are also conducting internal investigations into the existence of such practices. “We hope to have it completed by the end of this year,” says a spokesman for PwC Netherlands. According to the spokesperson, the reason is a request from the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). It requested all major firms to conduct an investigation last December, after KPMG announced that it would conduct such an investigation. PwC does not want to say anything about the content as long as the investigation is still ongoing.
The internal investigation at the Dutch branch of EY is “in full swing”, according to a spokesperson. “We think we will have it finished sometime by the end of this year. We have set up a working group, a number of our people are working on this.” Prior to the investigation, EY says it had had “no signals” of exam fraud by accountants.
The Dutch branch of Deloitte also confirms that an investigation is underway. According to a spokesperson, the office cannot yet make any statements about the set-up and planning. A spokesperson for the AFM confirms that the large accountancy firms in the Netherlands were asked last December to investigate possible exam fraud.
Van Boxtel resigns
At KPMG, the investigation into exam fraud has already led to the resignation of chairman of the supervisory board Roger van Boxtel, as it turned out last Friday. Before taking office in 2021, the former D66 minister and former NS top executive had a voluntary test partly carried out by someone else, confirmed he on de Volkskrant. He said he was “helped” because he had to go to another appointment during the test.
KPMG board member Marc Hogeboom, head of the Assurance department, decided to step down from his board position because he was “more [had] must have for signals that indicated that answers for internal tests were shared within KPMG Netherlands”. He will stay on as a partner.
In recent years, several large firms have been fined abroad for cheating in the internal exams that accountants regularly have to take. Like this paid EY was fined $100 million in the US last year and got KPMG was also fined $50 million in the US in 2019.