Audit firms drag heels over call to share work

The largest accounting companies operating in the United Kingdom are refusing to embrace a government plan that calls on them to share work with smaller rivals.

According to the Financial Times newspaper, Deloitte, EY, PwC, and KPMG－known collectively as the Big Four－have all questioned the idea, which is aimed at breaking their dominance in the auditing sector.

The Financial Times said Deloitte, EY, and PwC said during a public consultation period that ended last month they did not like the plan, which would force them to share between 10 percent and 30 percent of each large auditing job they get with smaller companies. And KPMG, while not immediately rejecting the idea, questioned how it could be made to work.

Michelle Hinchliff e, KPMG's UK chair of audit, told the paper shared audits could lead to duplication and higher costs for businesses.

"However, we have previously offered to participate in a pilot and remain committed to help find solutions to these challenges," she said.

Stephen Griggs, Deloitte UK's managing partner, said in a letter to the government that his company believes shared audits would create practical difficulties and discourage companies from listing in the UK.

And Kevin Ellis, chairman of PwC UK, told the Financial Times: "We're up for change but I think it's got to be change we can identify as a quality improvement. I'm not sure that the corporates in the UK that we audit, particularly the international ones, will want a different set of rules here."

The government said it wanted to break up the Big Four's monopoly over company audits after it emerged they collectively audit all enterprises listed on the FTSE 100 index and more than 90 percent of those on the FTSE 250 index. London believes that lack of competition offers the Big Four an unfair advantage.

Close relationship

And some critics have said the close relationship between the Big Four and large listed companies could lead to auditors missing things they should pick up on, as suggested by the failures of companies, including Carillion and Thomas Cook, that collapsed soon after they were audited.

London has said it hopes that, by forcing the Big Four to share their work, smaller firms will build capacity and be able to compete.

The government's plan initially calls for companies listed on the FTSE 350 index to appoint smaller accounting firms to conduct part of their audits.

The Times newspaper added that the plan is part of wide-ranging reforms proposed earlier this year by Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK's business secretary.

The BBC noted, however, that smaller auditing companies, including BDO and Grant Thornton, have said they may not have capacity to participate in the audits of FTSE 100 companies.