Parliament medical aid scheme drops KPMG
28 September 2017
Cape Town - Parliament on Wednesday confirmed that its medical aid scheme for MP’s had cut its ties with auditor KPMG.
“The Board of Parmed, under the chairpersonship of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Lechesa Tsenoli, has unanimously taken a decision to end its contract with KPMG in a meeting held in Cape Town last week,” said Parliament in a media release.
Parmed is a medical aid scheme for MP’s in both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. It is also used by members of Provincial Legislatures and judges.
Risks
Tsenoli said Parmed’s board made the decision after “considering the risks associated with doing business with KPMG after its recent admission of improper conduct that seriously tarnished the company’s reputation”.
The statement said that Parliament was in discussion around the “immediate termination” of another contract with KPMG, which was aimed at reviewing the effectiveness of the Parliamentary Service.
At least three companies cut their ties with KPMG this year over the fallout from years-long work it did auditing Gupta-owned businesses, and its role in authoring the controversial SA Revenue Service ‘rogue unit' report. KPMG withdrew the findings of the report on September 15, the same day its top SA leadership resigned.
Earlier on Wednesday former SARS group executive Johann van Loggerenberg called on KPMG to “immediately” withdraw the totality of its report, not just the conclusions and findings.
He described the report as “tardy, nonsensical and replete with errors”, adding that it omitted key evidence, was selective in what it reported and recorded opinions as facts.
