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Carillion: Auditor ‘failed to respond’ to accusations of failings
Neil Gerrard Associate editor
The Midland Met hospital in Birmingham hit delays after Carillion's collapse. Balfour Beatty took over construction in 2019. (Image: Dreamstime)
Carillion’s auditor KPMG “failed to respond” to accusations in respect of failures to properly audit the accounting of 20 significant construction contracts.
That’s according to the Official Receiver, on behalf of Carillion.
The Official Receiver filed a £1.3bn claim against KPMG in February in the interest of Carillion’s creditors. In that claim, it accused KPMG of failing in its duties as an auditor of Carillion.
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KPMG responded to the claim in July, and now the Official Receiver, representing Carillion, has issued its own response.
It said: “In some notable instances, KPMG has failed to respond to material aspects of Carillion’s case. In particular, KPMG failed to respond to Carillion’s allegations in respect of KPMG’s failure to properly audit the accounting of 20 significant construction contracts, including multi-million pound contracts such as the Battersea Power Station and the Msheireb Downtown Doha project in Old Doha, Qatar.
“Carillion claims that the value of these two contracts alone in the year ending 2016 was misstated by £351.9m, and that had KPMG acted as a reasonably competent auditor, it would have detected these misstatements.”
But KPMG denied that its auditors were at fault. In response to the Official Receiver’s latest comment, a spokesperson for the accounting firm said: “We believe this claim is without merit and we will robustly defend the case. Responsibility for the failure of Carillion lies solely with the company’s board and management, who set the strategy and ran the business.”
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