Bank of Portugal blames auditors for BES debacle

Frequently “blamed” for failing to identify the rot eating away at Banco Espírito Santo before it was too late, the Bank of Portugal is now attempting to pass the buck and blame auditors KPMG.

If the so-called ‘administrative procedure’ is successful, KPMG could be fined up to €2.5 million, say reports.

KPMG however is contesting the accusation, saying the institute led by Carlos Costa always had access to the information that KPMG auditors were using.

Indeed the decision to accuse KPMG’s Portuguese operation has not been “consensual within the bank”, adds Público.

There are those who “think it lacks foundation” precisely because the bank “will have had total knowledge of what was going on, and was inclusively in possession of documents sent by KPMG” on, for example, the parlous state of accounts at BES Angola.

The nitty gritty of BdP’s administrative procedure centres on alleged failings during the years 2011 to 2014 (when BES finally imploded, causing economic ricochets which are still reverberating through the country’s financial system).

Article by kind permission of http://portugalresident.com/

Comments  

+1 #5 Peter Booker 2018-04-20 08:11

I note that Mike Jones specifies Scandinavians. Britons would not do, since the British part of KPMG was at the bottom of Britain´s own banking crisis.

+1 #4 Mike Jones 2018-04-19 21:11

Surely KPMG, if it had any doubts, could have added a 'caution' over the accounts they had prepared for the Bank of Portugal. But it does emphasise that, if the rot goes deep enough then there are multiple layers of BES that were willing to sign off on their sections totals. Alienated from any comprehension of banking ethics. So how would KPMG know or was the answer lying in full view? That these were Portuguese accountants at KPMG assessing BES, their countries flagship private Bank. Perhaps KPMG should learn from this and mix up nationalities, drop in a few Scandinavians to any assessment the firm does of southern European Banks.

+2 #3 nogin the nog 2018-04-19 11:57

hmm
What a load of Bull .... Carlos Costa is a crook
and should be treated as such, Or is it just business as usual in the Banking Sector..

+1 #2 Guido 2018-04-19 11:48

Why are they blaiming each others.... they are both loaded with tons of butter on their heads....

+4 #1 Peter Booker 2018-04-19 10:18

Audit reports are nowadays not worth the paper they are printed on. Until we introduce a system where an external auditor has no other commercial relationship with the company it audits, we shall continue to suffer this kind of mess.

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