Australia’s Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) chairman Peter de Cure has removed himself from the regulator’s examination of KPMG’s data misuse after breaching conflict of interest requirements, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported.
De Cure was a partner at KPMG for close to 25 years until 2013.
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Earlier this month, he put in place a special conflict management plan that prevented him from discussing the investigation with TPB staff or fellow board members.
The arrangement followed his admission that he failed to disclose being briefed by a KPMG audit partner.
Under the special conflict policy, TPB staff must route all KPMG-related investigation matters through board member and academic Kerrie Sadiq, rather than via de Cure.
De Cure told parliament he has no current financial or employment relationship with KPMG.
TPB, in a written response to questions from Greens Senator Barbara Pocock, said: “de Cure is a director of three entities that KPMG provides audit services to.
“From time to time, de Cure has attended audit-related lunches for KPMG audit clients. de Cure has disclosed these attendances to the TPB Board.
“To avoid any perception of conflict, de Cure has in past cases excluded himself from any decision-making in relation to matters connected to KPMG. For the current investigation, de Cure will take the same approach.”
The special conflict policy was introduced after the AFR reported earlier this month that de Cure had not disclosed the KPMG briefing on the data misuse matter and had criticised the whistleblower.
In June, during parliamentary testimony, de Cure also played down the TPB’s work on the KPMG data misuse, stating the board was “not at this stage conducting a formal investigation” because the claims did not relate to the provision of tax services.
Notably, KPMG Australia has been engulfed in a scandal after a whistleblower alleged that audit partners misused confidential client data and leveraged conflicted relationships to win work.
The allegations led to leadership exits and governance overhaul in the company.
