KPMG’s admission followed allegations tabled in parliament in March that senior executives misused confidential information from long standing client Lendlease and exploited conflicted relationships to secure lucrative engagements. In an April 30 letter to a parliamentary committee, Lendlease’s chief executive described the conduct as unacceptable and confirmed the company is in talks with KPMG over potential consequences.
KPMG told Lendlease the board papers it accessed were low sensitivity and claimed the firm gained no competitive advantage. The allegations originated from a former employee, prompting an investigation by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and triggering disclosures from three partners about internal conduct issues.
Lendlease was told that an audit partner had accessed two documents from its board papers that KPMG was not authorised to view, then displayed them in front of an audit team preparing the Westpac tender. The firm acknowledged to Lendlease that the partner should not have viewed any documents in the audit tender folder within its software system and should have notified the client about the access.
The issues are particularly sensitive because KPMG has been Lendlease’s auditor for more than 60 years and went on to win Westpac’s audit in 2024, displacing rival PwC. KPMG had previously said it could not substantiate the whistleblower’s broader claims despite running several internal and external investigations.
The parliamentary allegations stretch beyond Lendlease, covering multiple major corporate audits and alleging systemic misuse of confidential information. Using parliamentary privilege, a Labor senator relayed claims that restricted Lendlease board papers were taken, stored and circulated inside KPMG, and used in bids for work from Westpac and Dexus without informing Lendlease’s chair, who was also overseeing the Westpac selection process.
Further accusations included KPMG personnel accessing a restricted Telstra technology environment during a live audit tender pitch and receiving non public “intelligence” to undermine EY in the Westpac process. Other claims involved deliberately exposing internal Dexus documents on an unattended laptop and using inside information in Macquarie audit bids.
The whistleblower also alleged KPMG mishandled internal complaints about artificial intelligence exam cheating, first by failing to report them properly and then by not acting when concerns were raised.
Parliament’s joint committee on corporations and financial services has privately heard evidence from the former employee and is weighing whether to convene special public hearings. The committee has already published seven letters relating to the saga.
Committee correspondence is being framed as a validation of the whistleblower’s concerns and a signal that big four firms should respond ethically without needing parliamentary speeches to prompt action. KPMG, describing the matter as longstanding and complex, says it has worked through multiple allegations from the same whistleblower over two years, investigating where possible but often finding the claims unsubstantiated based on available evidence.
The firm concedes two related conduct issues did emerge from those probes, confirms sanctions were imposed on unnamed individuals and endorsed by a board subcommittee, and says it has escalated its oversight while notifying regulators including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Chartered Accountants and the Tax Practitioners Board.
