KPMG has been suspended from taking on new audit work in Oman, adding to the list of countries where the accounting firm is facing scrutiny.
Oman’s Capital Market Authority found “major financial and accounting irregularities” at some listed companies in the country and that “professional negligence” by some audit firms “warranted disciplinary measures against them.” The CMA, as the regulator is known, didn’t name the companies whose accounts it reviewed.
KPMG said it’s “co-operating with the CMA during the review of certain audits dated prior to 2015” and will continue to provide audit services to existing clients in Oman.
The audit firm is already coming under scrutiny in countries such as the UK, South Africa and the UAE. The company’s South African unit was linked to three scandals including work for the politically connected Gupta family and the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank. In the UK, regulators have probed KPMG’s audits of Carillion Plc, a contractor that collapsed in January.
Elsewhere in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, KPMG has been in the spotlight for its relationship with Abraaj Group, the Dubai-based private equity firm that collapsed this year amid allegations of misused funds. KPMG International is investigating the UAE unit’s 2018 review of Abraaj.


Related Story