Deloitte faces new audit investigation Business

The FCA dropped its investigation into Lookers last month, saying it had “concerns” about “the culture, systems and historic control,” but did not censor the company.

Deloitte was replaced by BDO in 2020 as Lookers’ auditor after 14 years working on the car dealership’s accounts.

In Deloitte’s resignation letter, which was filed with Companies House in January, the consulting firm said it was withdrawing from the contract after measures taken by the car dealership to address weaknesses in its financial controls came to an end. proved to “ fall short of what had been committed, and what we expected ”.

He added: “As part of our 2017 and 2018 audits, we reported to the board of directors of the company a number of recommendations for actions related to the financial controls of the company, which the company s ‘is committed to entrepreneurship.

“We made these recommendations because we considered that there was a considerable gap between the financial controls observed within the company and those we observed in other public companies of a scale and size. equivalent complexity. “

This is not the first time that Deloitte has encountered problems during its audit. Earlier this month, the accounting giant struck an $ 80million (£ 57million) deal with Malaysia for its role as auditor to 1MDB, the state investment fund involved. in a multibillion dollar embezzlement scandal.

Last November, Deloitte was fined for failing to audit work for Johnston Press and ordered to pay a record £ 15million after failing to act with ‘integrity and objectivity’ for its audits of the former FTSE 100 Autonomy technology group.

In a statement, Deloitte said, “We are taking this investigation seriously and are fully cooperating with the FRC. The quality of the audit is our priority and we are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards. ”