Patisserie Valerie auditor sees accountancy fraud gap

The head of the accountancy firm facing a regulatory investigation over the quality of its work amid the collapse of Patisserie Valerie has told MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) company audits are not structured to look for fraud.

David Dunckley, the chief executive of Grant Thornton, was giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on the future of the audit market, set up in the wake of the demise of BHS and Carillion (Frankfurt: 924047 - news) .

He told the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) committee that while he couldn't talk about Patisserie Valerie specifically, the audit industry would generally find any sophisticated fraud difficult to pick up.

"We're not looking for fraud or the future or giving a statement that the accounts are correct.

"We saying they're reasonable, we are looking in the past and we are not set up to look for fraud," he said.

Patisserie Valerie's parent firm collapsed last week, forcing dozens of stores to close and hundreds of jobs to be lost. It followed a disclosure that the scale of an alleged fraud at the company, being investigated by police, was worse than had been originally thought.

Under questions from MPs on the committee Mr Dunckley admitted that accountancy firms need to "deliver more on the public's expectations" and that audit regulations need to be overhauled.

David Sproul, the UK chief executive of Deloitte - one of the so-called "big four" accountancy firms - was also among those giving evidence to MPs and agreeing on the need for reforms to boost quality.

He later told Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) 's Ian King Live that he had issues with a planned regulatory shake-up by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) among the recommendations was that audits of FTSE 350 firms - the largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) - be carried out by at least two firms.

The CMA wants one of them to be from outside the "big four" - PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte - to allow smaller rivals to gain experience and credibility and ensure a "cross-check on quality" at the same time.

But Mr Sproul said: "We don't think that's a good idea. We don't think it improves audit quality. We think there's a risk it actually reduces audit quality at the same time as adding cost and complexity."

A separate review for the government has called for the accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, to be abolished and replaced with a more powerful "Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority".

PwC and EY confirmed to MPs they would stop providing all non-essential consulting services to firms they audit by next year to help engender trust.

Mr Sproul later told Sky that it had suggested such an idea early in the CMA's consultation process but was told by the regulator there was "no evidence" the issue gave rise to conflict or quality concerns.