Another KPMG leader steps aside amid audit leak scandal fallout

Eileen Hoggett has worked for KPMG for more than 30 years. (Sourced: kpmg.com)

Eileen Hoggett's move marks another major change in the firm's leadership team after the chief executive and head of audit resigned last week. Ms Hoggett will return to a full-time audit role as investigations continue.

The changes come after publicly aired revelations by a whistleblower that auditors at the firm had misused confidential client documents.

There could be more leadership changes at KPMG, more clients leaving the firm and wider ramifications about the way big four firms are regulated.

KPMG Australia chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett will step aside while investigations are pending into an audit leak scandal at the big-four firm.

Her move marks another major change in the firm's leadership after Friday's resignations of chief executive Andrew Yates and head of audit Julian McPherson.

KPMG is fighting to contain reputational damage from revelations aired under parliamentary privilege that its auditors had misused confidential client documents.

The claims against KPMG were first formally made by a whistleblower in May 2024, dismissed by KPMG, then came to light when Labor Senator Deborah O'Neill aired them under parliamentary privilege this year.

The claims include that the firm's partners misused board papers from Lendlease to pitch for and win external audits of Westpac and Dexus.

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The only client to publicly confirm KPMG misused its documents so far is Lendlease. After decades as a client of KPMG, Lendlease will put its external auditing contract out to tender next year.

It is understood SingTel Optus was also told by KPMG that its data was accessed in an attempt to win the audit work of Telstra. Another KPMG client named under privilege was Macquarie Group.

Senator O'Neill chairs a parliamentary joint committee that also unveiled the PwC tax leaks saga, when it was revealed the firm shared confidential government documents with multinational clients.

The Department of Finance later had PWC agree to an order to stand down any staff involved in the breach and effectively shut the firm out of new federal contracts by ordering officials to consider confidentiality breaches when evaluating bids.

KPMG is now fighting to avoid the same fate, as well as the possibility that it could lose more major clients if there are concerns its auditors cannot be trusted.

Senator O'Neill chairs the parliamentary joint committee tha