https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/05/northamptonshire-councils-be-merged
Category Archives: Accountability
Government lacks transparency over local authority governance
“There is a complete lack of transparency over the government’s handling of local authorities with governance issues, MPs have warned.
A damning report from the Public Accounts Committee has called on the government to strengthen audit and governance of the “complex and fast-moving” environment that local authorities find themselves in.
The cross-party group of MPs warned that local authorities are now pursuing shared services and taking on commercial risk, but are simultaneously dealing with a “significant” reduction in resources.
The report noted that while some authorities have robust arrangements, others are under strain and have “audit committees that do not provide sufficient assurance, ineffective internal audit, weak arrangements for the management of risk in local authorities’ commercial investments, and inadequate oversight and scrutiny”.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s oversight of local authority governance has until now been “reactive and ill-informed”, the report said. However, it noted that the department has now committed to improving its oversight.
MPs said that MHCLG lacks reliable information on key governance risks and relies on weak sources of information, meaning it has “no way of pinpointing at-risk councils”. They also said that the department is not focused on long-term risks to council finances.
“There is a complete lack of transparency over both the department’s informal interventions in local authorities with financial or governance problems and the results of its formal interventions,” the PAC said.
The report claimed that taxpayers have a right to know if there are problems with their councils’ finances. It cited the demise of Northamptonshire County Council, which it said was an ‘open secret’ but only for those in the sector.
PAC chair Meg Hillier said: “On the rare occasions a local authority fails, the impact on local citizens is severe. Residents facing decimated services get no comfort from being told that their council’s dire finances were “an open secret”.
“The government needs to recognise the extra pressure that squeezed budgets and increased commercial risks are having on local government and make sure it is monitoring the risks effectively so that it can be alert to the impact of changes on local government.”
MHCLG has been contacted for a response.”
Appearing before the PAC in March:
CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman called for an improvement in local government audit.”
“Carillion’s ‘relationship with auditors too comfortable’ “
“Ninety-three per cent of construction industry suppliers think the relationship between the ill-fated firm and its auditors, KPMG, was “too cosy”, according to a poll of construction industry leaders.
A further 57% of respondents believed that reforming the ‘big four’ audit firms – PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte – is a necessary step.
The poll, which surveyed more than 50 senior managers across the construction sector, found that 76% believed the Financial Reporting Council was too timid in its challenging of questionable financial information.
Mark Robinson, chief executive of Scape Group, which carried out the poll, said: “We need to be able to have faith in company accounts and the work auditors are carrying out, especially when public sector contracts and people’s livelihoods are at risk.
“Greater oversight and closer management of auditing practices [is needed] in the search to rebuild trust in the industry, but we also need to make sure we are putting in place sensible reforms that do not put increased cost pressures on an industry that is already contending with the cost of materials and reduced access to labour.”
The report from Scape Group also found that 64% of respondents thought that Carillion’s downfall was owing to debt mismanagement, acquisitions and long payment terms, created by a focus on revenue rather than profit.
The Competition & Markets Authority recently suggested that the ‘big four’ separate their audit work from the rest of their consultancy work. This move, CIPFA said, could have implications for local government.
KPMG and the FRC have been contacted for comment.”
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/05/carillions-relationship-auditors-too-comfortable
“Probation services set to be renationalised as [Tory] Government accepts failure”
Owl says: Privatisation was supposed to be the answer … not the problem!
“Probation services are set to be renationalised as the Government prepares to accept its experiment has failed.
An announcement on how supervision of thousands of offenders will return to the National Probation Service is expected in weeks.
Reforms introduced by Chris Grayling when he was Justice Secretary have cost taxpayers almost £500million and led to an increase in murders committed by criminals.
Sources said the news could be broken as early as Thursday.
… The Ministry of Justice began partially privatising the probation service in 2013.
It involved 21 “community rehabilitation companies” monitoring people released from jail after serving short sentences. But the Government announced last year their contracts would end in 2020 – 14 months early.
Dame Glenys Stacey, the Chief Inspector of Probation, has previously described the current model as “irredeemably flawed”.
She told MPs on the Commons Justice Committee yesterday there were “deep-seated, systemic issues”.
She said it was “remarkably difficult” to condense probation into a set of contractual measures.
The Mirror revealed this year that 225 people had been murdered by convicted criminals being monitored by firms since privatisation.
The toll soared to 71 last year from 42 in 2015, shortly after Mr Grayling introduced the changes. …”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/probation-services-set-renationalised-government-15868831
Independents at EDDC … an interesting spread …
Independents by their nature are a funny bunch! With no party politics to bind them (a VERY GOOD thing!) what else can bind them?
The East Devon results are particularly interesting: a very cohesive group for the eastern area based on Exmouth, but with a smattering of Lib Dems and Greens, a very cohesive group for the whole of the Axe Valley and Yarty and a bunch of mostly newbies literally in the middle (Ottery St Mary, Cranbrook, Feniton).
Might we see a new way of doing things this time around – geographically rather than party politically? But might that have its own dangers as each area vies for scarce resources? Or, can the three different areas blend and share resources equitably and be seen to be doung so? The values of independents suggests they could if the will is there.
Now that would be interesting …..! It would certainly keep the now somewhat raggle-taggle mostly Honiton-based minority Tories on their toes and fighting their now very,very much smaller corner!
Interesting times … interesting times!
“Growing inequality threatens democracy”
“Inequalities in pay and opportunities in the UK are becoming so extreme they are threatening democracy, an Institute for Fiscal Studies study has said.
The think tank warns of runaway incomes for high earners but rises in “deaths of despair”, such as from addiction and suicide, among the poorest.
It warns of risks to “centre-ground” politics from stagnating pay and divides in health and education.
The report
https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13075
says such widening gaps are “making a mockery of democracy”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), one of the country’s leading research institutes, is launching what it says is the UK’s biggest analysis of inequality.
That will be chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Prof Sir Angus Deaton. …
It suggests pay inequality in the UK is high by international standards – with the share of household income going to the richest 1% having tripled in the past three decades.
The middle classes are also under pressure, particularly younger generations, with stagnant pay and unaffordable house prices.
The long-term decline in trade union membership is identified as another factor in wages not increasing. …
Richest increasing their earnings
As well as inequality in income, the think tank highlights divergence in health.
It says there is almost a 10-year gap in male life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas – and the IFS warns of “deaths of despair”, with a rise in early deaths from drug and alcohol abuse and suicide being linked to factors such as poverty, social isolation and mental health problems.
Patterns of relationship are also affected by inequality, the study suggests.
Over recent decades, wealthier people have become more likely to be living in a couple, either married or co-habiting, the IFS says. …”
“District council coalition talks ‘ongoing’ says East Devon Alliance leader”
“Discussions over the formation of the district council are ongoing according to the leader of the Independent East Devon Alliance (IEDA).
Paul Arnott, councillor for Coly Valley, has welcomed the decision by the Liberal Democrats to ‘support the formation of an independent-led administration’.
There are now 11 IEDA councillors at East Devon District Council and a partnership with the independent group, which has 20 councillors, would give the coalition overall control of the council.
The Liberal Democrats said they are not interested in forming a coalition with any other parties or groups.
Mr Arnott said: “We were very pleased to be told by the Liberal Democrats that they would be prepared to support the formation of an Independent-led administration.
“As Independent East Devon Alliance councillors we have principles based on accountability, democracy and transparency.
“We believe we were all elected to run the council to the highest standards while also reforming its governance from the outset.
“We are currently in discussions with other independents about how best to deliver this.”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/district-councillor-formation-talks-are-ongoing-1-6047103?
Swire’s extended family still in Sunday Times Rich List
Swire is a member of the Hong Kong based Swire Group family, whose assets have increased over the last year to £5.08 billion putting them at no 27 on the Rich List 39th place last year), up from £3.3 billion last year (an increase of £1.78 bn).
Two Swires are believed to own 45% of the operation.
Source: Sunday Times
Civil servants set up food bank for their office cleaners
“An emergency food bank has been set up in the Whitehall offices of a government department after cleaners and other support staff became the victims of a payroll blunder by one of Britain’s biggest outsourcing companies.
An email was sent to workers at Greg Clark’s business, energy and industrial strategy department on Thursday asking them to donate food at four drop-off points set up in the ministry.
The email, seen by The Sunday Times, said the request followed problems with the department’s new facility services contractor, ISS World.
The problems meant that “every single payday since they took over the contract on March 1, our staff have not been paid, paid incorrect amounts, unexplained deductions, etc.
“This has resulted in cleaners unable to travel to work as they have no money for bus fares, a member unable to give their wife transport money to take their sick son to the GP, forcing her to walk for 1.5 hours and others facing eviction proceedings. The situation has become unbearable for them.”
The email, which was written by a trade union official, added: “We have called for crisis talks with [department] senior management, after repeated assurances have been reneged on . . . Please donate whatever you can urgently.”
Reacting to the appearance of a food bank at the department, Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “It is absolutely shocking that our members are being forced to use food banks because of ISS’s mismanagement of the contract. This underlines why all contracted-out services in . . . government departments must be brought back in-house as a matter of urgency.”
The department said last night it was in “daily contact” with ISS, and promised that “any additional costs incurred by staff due to the error” would be reimbursed. It said it was contacting every contractor to “ensure any further errors not yet identified are resolved within the same day”.
ISS World did not respond to requests for comment.
Source: Sunday Times, paywall
“Around 50 hospital beds are blocked each day by patients fit to leave at the Royal Devon and Exeter Trust”
Owl says: In the past many of these patients would have been transferred to local community hospitals, where they would be rehabilitated to go home or moved to local facilities, leaving RDE to use the unblocked beds for new acute patients:
“With elderly patients often stuck waiting to be signed off, there is concern over the impact delays can have on their health.
According to the NHS, a hospital stay of more than 10 days for a person over 80 can lead to 10 years of muscle ageing.
NHS England figures show that in February, patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust spent a total of 1,398 days waiting to be discharged or transferred to a different care facility. …”
https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/bed-blocking-at-the-royal-devon-and-exeter-trust-1-6042162
Another EU ballot snafu …
From Exmouth:
“Serious concerns about the legitimacy of the European Parliament Elections as my husband has received 3 separate Ballot papers with different reference codes on them.. Doesn’t bode well for a properly regulated and fair referendum….”
Private school head complains too many state school children are going to Oxbridge
“The headmaster of a leading private school has compared the rise in Oxbridge admissions among state-educated pupils to the policies of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Anthony Wallersteiner, head of Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, told The Times that parents of his students are complaining about “social engineering” edging their children out of places at Oxford and Cambridge.
He said: “There’s a much more concerted effort by [Oxbridge] admissions tutors to drive down the number of places given to independent schools and redress the balance and to put in context. …
… Last year a report found 42 percent of places at Oxford and Cambridge go to independent school students, even though just 7% of the general population attend a private school. …”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/private-schools-nazis-hitler_uk_5cd683e9e4b054da4e89ba72
Tory Party too poor to pay rent? Maybe they can get Housing Benefit ….. or Universal Credit!
MPs claiming expenses for adult children
“The Daily Telegraph says it has discovered that MPs – including Energy minister Claire Perry – are boosting their expenses by claiming for adult children dependent on them.
According to the paper, the age limit when claiming for children is 18, rising to 21 for certain exceptions.
Ms Perry says all her claims are made in accordance with the rules; two other MPs have told the Telegraph they will return money.
The paper’s leader column says the rules may have changed in the wake of the expenses scandal 10 years ago – but it is clearly going to take a long time to remake the culture in Westminster.
It concludes by advising politicians to listen to the words of Lord Tebbit – “If you wouldn’t be happy to read something about yourself on the front pages, don’t do it.”
Has our Electoral Officer messed up again?
EDW comment:
“I’d like to thank Mark Williams but I cannot. As we will be away for the European elections we applied for a postal vote. We had a letter on Tuesday from MW graciously allowing us our democratic right and saying that voting papers will follow.. Today’s post was the last opportunity but no voting papers have arrived. Thus we have been deprived of our vote. It seems that in his case past performance is a guide to the future! I wonder who will blame this time?”
Swire’s choice for PM (Dominic Raab) “Pockets £73,000 In Donations From Financiers Linked To Tax Havens”
No surprise then …
“Tory leadership favourite Dominic Raab has netted £73,000 in donations from financiers linked to tax havens.
The no-deal Brexit advocate, who is thought to be eyeing a run at the Conservative Party’s top job, has pocketed more than £127,000 since January, the MPs’ register of interests reveals.
The donations include £29,000 for a staff member in Raab’s office from the IPGL hedge fund, which is owned by ex-Tory treasurer Michael Spencer. Spencer’s hedge fund was named in the Paradise Papers in connection with a subsidiary based in Bermuda.
Spencer was nominated for a peerage in 2016 by then prime minister David Cameron, but the Cabinet Office reportedly blocked the appointment over the role of his private equity firm ICAP in the rate-fixing Libor scandal.
Private banking group Arbuthnot donated £44,000 to Raab’s office. The bank’s owner Henry Angest is also named in the Paradise Papers in connection with a subsidiary of his bank based in Barbados. Overall, Angest has donated nearly £7m to the Conservative Party. …
Richard Brooks, co-founder of the pro-second referendum group For Our Future’s Sake, added: “Dominic Raab is the epitome of the Brexit elite.
“Well-cushioned and isolated from any of the impacts his disastrous policies would bring. Nobody voted in 2016 to turn Britain into a deregulated tax haven but that is just what so many now pushing hard for a no deal Brexit want.”
In recent weeks, Raab has also received £10,000 each from Carpetright owner and Vote Leave donor Lord Harris and from Dominic Burke, chief executive of insurance firm Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT).
In March, Raab received £20,000 from Toby Ward, the head of JLT subsidiary Hayward Aviation, and £6,480 worth of communications advice from Melior Advisers.
All of the donations were declared in line with parliamentary regulations. …
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/dominic-raab-tax-havens_uk_5cd45169e4b0796a95d82002
Local Enterprise Partnerships being better held to account? Not really
No evidence so far … Although LEP control is mostly with DCC, EDDC has an LEP role. Now we have a different councillor mix at EDDC we might get some answers about our LEP’s finances …..
“The National Audit Office has reported a significant improvement in the financial transparency of England’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) after section 151 officers were given extra responsibility for ensuring that key data is publicly available.
But the public-spending watchdog has warned that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s unwillingness to evaluate the impact of the £9bn in Growth Deal funding channelled through LEPs since 2015 means it is unable to learn lessons on what has worked well. A total of £12 bn is committed to the fund by 2021.
Set up to drive economic growth as part of coalition government reforms introduced from 2011, there are now 38 LEPs in England, tasked with bringing together business and political leaders in a patchwork of sub-regional areas.
In its first report on their progress for three years, the NAO found a leap in the level of openness displayed by the partnerships, following concerns about financial transparency levels explored by the Ney Review, in 2017.
The NAO said that in 2016 only 13% of LEPs published financial data such as salaries on their websites, while only a third published their annual reports online.
As of February this year, 84% of LEPs were publishing their annual reports online and all gave financial information on the projects they funded.
The NAO said the improvements had followed an MHCLG and CIPFA drive to “set out stronger expectations” of the role of section 151 officers in assuring good financial governance of LEPs.
Section 151s now sign off monitoring information reported to the department.
Sign-off is also required for local assurance frameworks that confirm a LEP’s governance arrangements.
The drive came after the Ney Review’s 17 recommendations and is one of a series of initiatives addressing its findings.
Despite the improvements in transparency, the NAO report said MHCLG’s ability to make the most of opportunities presented by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – created to replace EU economic development funding post-Brexit – would be hampered by its lack of understanding of LEPs success with the Growth Deals.
“We have previously reported that the department opted not to set quantifiable objectives for Growth Deals, including, for example, the number of jobs created,” it said.
“The absence of robust evaluation means the department and LEPs are less able to learn from what has worked well and ensure that this is reflected in the design or objectives of the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”
The report observed that that there was an “inherent tension” in the government’s need to develop a system of governance for a finance model that devolved funding and new responsibilities to ad-hoc business-led partnerships.
“While the assurance framework is stronger, backed up by checks on compliance, it is not proven yet whether these measures will be effective in detecting and responding to governance failures over significant sums of public money,” it said.
“The department’s accounting officer is accountable for the Local Growth Fund delivered through LEPs.
“However, the department has made no effort to evaluate the value for money of nearly £12bn in public funding, nor does it have robust plans to do so.
“The department needs a grip on how effectively these funds are used. It needs to act if it wants to have any hope of learning the lessons of what works locally for future interventions in local growth.”
Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier said MHCLG had to ensure that huge sums of public funding were not wasted as it presses ahead with its devolved approach to delivering economic growth.
“It is too early to tell if the ministry’s remedial actions will get its governance up to scratch,” she said.
“Worryingly, the ministry also does not know if the funding is being used effectively to benefit local communities and businesses as intended.”
Last year the PAC called on MHCLG to implement the Ney Review recommendations and strengthen transparency and governance arrangements at LEPs following failings at the Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough LEP.
Concerns included the LEP’s relationship with local developers, and how it managed conflicts of interest. GCGP LEP went into voluntary liquidation in December 2017 after the department withheld funding from it.
This week’s NAO report notes that MHCLG “acknowledges that it cannot mitigate entirely the risk of a failure similar to the GCGP LEP”.
Boosted s151 officer role ‘significantly improves’ LEP transparency
“Environment Agency Chair calls for new approach to flood and coastal resilience”
“… Launching a major, long-term strategy to tackle flooding and coastal change, Environment Agency Chair, Emma Howard Boyd has said ‘we cannot win a war against water’ by building higher flood defences and called for a new approach to ensure communities are resilient to the threat of flooding posed by climate change.
Opening an 8-week consultation on the new strategy, Emma Howard Boyd said that the Environment Agency is preparing for a potential 4°C rise in global temperature and urgent action is needed to tackle more frequent, intense flooding and sea level rise.
Among the recommendations in the strategy, the Environment Agency has committed to working with partners to develop consistent standards for flood and coastal resilience across the country. To achieve these standards, communities should have access to a range of tools which give them control of how they prepare for and respond to flooding and coastal change, based on the challenges or flood risk that particular location may face.
These could include traditional defences, temporary barriers, natural flood management, sustainable drainage systems, effective flood warnings and emergency response, alongside designing and adapting existing properties and new development so they can recover quickly from a flood. …”
Government to foot bill to replace Grenfell-type cladding because developers refuse to do it
Well,you can’t upset your mega-millionairedonors can you?
“Ministers are believed to be poised to release hundreds of millions of pounds to fix private tower blocks wrapped in combustible Grenfell-style cladding after mounting public anger that dozens of freeholders and developers have refused to pay to make them safe.
About 20,000 people living in private leasehold homes are estimated to be affected by the risk caused by the now-banned plastic-filled panels, similar to those which helped spread the fire at Grenfell that killed 72 people.
Having spent months trying to persuade property companies to pay with only limited success, housing ministers appear to be convinced of the need to step in with public funds and are believed to be awaiting approval from the chancellor, Philip Hammond. An announcement is expected imminently, according to sources close to negotiations.
Some leaseholders have been forced to mount their own 24-hour patrols to make sure fires don’t break out, while others’ homes have become unsaleable. A survey of the impact on residents last month found some had turned to drink and drugs and others were suffering bouts of depression and suicidal feelings. The greatest number of affected buildings are in London and Greater Manchester and many belong to first-time buyers.
The standoff between leaseholders who say they cannot afford to pay bills of up to £80,000 each and freeholders and developers who say they are not obliged to pay under law has caused growing anger and frustration as next month’s second anniversary of the Grenfell disaster looms. Grenfell survivors have warned that a delay in tackling the problem means a second disaster is “in the post”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said on Wednesday that the lack of action by some private building owners was “completely unacceptable”.
“Due to lack of progress the government is looking at a range of new additional measures to get building owners to do the right thing,” they said.
Ministers have told campaigners that the decision lies with the Treasury. Those who have lobbied Hammond to release funds include Kevin Hollinrake, a Conservative member of the Commons housing select committee. He said on Wednesday: “We need to step in and provide a solution. That is going to include money and we are in conversation with the Treasury.”
Pressure has been growing on ministers to step in. The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, the housing charity Shelter and the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents town halls, have backed a national campaign fronted by leaseholders calling for public funds to strip off and replace the dangerous cladding on private apartment blocks over 18m in height.
Lord Porter, a Conservative peer and the LGA chairman, said: “Too many leaseholders are suffering stress on a daily basis because it is still not clear who will pay to fix their homes. This cannot and must not continue.”
Checks found 176 private residential towers were wrapped in the same aluminium composite material fitted to Grenfell Tower partly as a cosmetic improvement in a £10m refurbishment concluding in 2016.
But according to the government’s own figures, leaseholders in 93 private towers are not protected from remediation costs and works have been completed on just 10. The communities secretary, James Brokenshire, made £400m available to fix social housing blocks a year ago, moving money from an existing fund for affordable homes. As a result work on fixing council and housing association towers has progressed much faster.
However, there is concern any new money will only be made available to remove the aluminium composite cladding and not to fix other fire safety problems including high-pressure laminate panels which are also combustible and buildings where fire breaks supposed to stop fires spreading through cladding are missing or faulty.
Last week, the housing minister Kit Malthouse told parliament: “We have been engaged across government to consider additional interventions, so that progress can be made more swiftly.” He said he hoped to announce specific measures shortly.
He said leaseholders were currently protected from remediation costs in 83 out of 176 residential buildings. “The growing list of owners and developers who have stepped in includes Barratt Developments, Mace Group, Legal & General, Peabody, Aberdeen Asset Management and Frasers Property,” he said.
“In the social sector we are making good progress,” he added. “In the private sector, progress is slower; I absolutely admit that. We need to do something to speed that up, and we hope to increase the pace quite soon. Discussions are ongoing.”
EDDC external auditors rapped on knuckles – again!
The suggestion when you move home is to change the locks. This lock can’t be changed so maybe an independent locksmith should examine the locks …
“KPMG has been fined £5m and “severely reprimanded” by the financial regulator for a series of failings in its audit of the Co-operative Bank at the height of the financial crisis a decade ago.
Andrew Walker, a partner at the big four accountancy firm who still works there, was fined £125,000 and also severely reprimanded. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued both fines for misconduct that occurred shortly after the Co-op Bank’s disastrous takeover of the Britannia building society in 2009, which ultimately led to the discovery in 2013 of a £1.5bn black hole in the bank’s accounts.
In the second penalty imposed on KPMG in just over a week, it will only pay £4m of the fine as it did not fight the penalty, as well as £500,000 for the FRC’s legal costs. Walker’s fine has been reduced, to £100,000 in the settlement.
The Co-op Bank’s acquisition of Britannia and its risky loan book a decade ago brought the Co-op Bank close to collapse. It ended its 40-year auditing relationship with KPMG in 2014 and appointed EY – another big four firm along with PwC and Deloitte.
KPMG and Walker both admitted that their conduct “fell significantly short” of auditing standards in two areas – valuations of commercial loans acquired from Britannia and the audit of valuations and liabilities under a series of loan notes purchased from Britannia.
The FRC said KPMG and Walker did not obtain enough audit evidence, failed to show “sufficient professional scepticism” and failed to tell Co-op Bank that the disclosure of the expected lives of the loan notes was not adequate.
KPMG said: “We regret that some of our audit work around specific elements of the bank’s fair value adjustments did not meet the appropriate standards. The work in question was conducted almost a decade ago and we have significantly enhanced our procedures and training around the areas in question since then.”
Barry Tootell, the former chief financial officer and chief executive of the Co-op Bank, admitted misconduct in 2016 and was excluded from membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for six years. He agreed to pay £20,000 for the FRC’s investigation.
Last week KPMG received a £6m fine and a severe reprimand from the FRC for its audit of an insurance firm, Equity Syndicate Management, more than a decade ago. KPMG’s audits of firms and institutions this year and in 2020 and 2021 will be subject to to an additional review by its internal audit quality team, who will report back to the FRC.”
East Devon Watch 