‘I would not do it again’: KPMG whistleblower details harsh reality of speaking up
The whistleblower at the centre of the audit leaks scandal engulfing the accounting giant has told a parliamentary inquiry they were subject to retaliation after coming forward.
The whistleblower at the centre of the KPMG audit leaks scandal has accused the accounting giant of circulating their identity inside the firm and other acts of retaliation after the individual aired allegations of client data being used inappropriately to win business.
Late on Friday, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services released a fresh batch documents including testimony from the whistleblower which committee chair and Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill said was “another gift from the whistleblower to put on the public record about the frustrations and to contrast with the assertions of the very big and powerful KPMG”.
In the documents the whistleblower said that in hindsight, they would not disclose the alleged misconduct again if they knew how the process would play out.
“If I were asked, genuinely, whether I would do this again, my answer would be no. Not because the matters were not worth raising, and not because I regret raising them, but because of what I now know, and could not have known then, about what disclosing them at a firm like KPMG, in the legal and regulatory environment that exists in Australia today, actually involves,” the document reads.
