There’s money in influence peddling and paper shuffling. KPMG just announced a 16% jump in revenue to $2bn in the wake of EY’s recent 18% jump. Top brass at both Big 4 advisory houses are swimming in bonuses. What’s the scam?
The scam is the Big 4 are secretive partnerships, not companies, and they don’t have to disclose where their money is coming from, even though they are the most powerful private institutions in the world. Most of the income growth comes from governments. It’s our money, public money, and the Big 4 have shown a lot of flair in recent years getting their hands on it.
Further to the scam, the other two big divisions, besides consulting, are helping multinationals wipe out their tax and the ‘gatekeeper’ role which is auditing the same big companies. There are serious problems with audit in Australia including KPMG’s recent cheating scandal.
EY Australia doubled its revenue growth to 18 per cent over the last financial year, to $2.75 billion, and handed out 70 million in “record bonuses”.
This was the first story we published at MWM when the website launched in 2016:
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.