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UK Financial Reporting Council to probe Deloitte over Go-Ahead audits

Date: April 13, 2022 Omkar Patwardhan Omkar Patwardhan
UK Financial Reporting Council to probe Deloitte over Go-Ahead audits 
Deloitte, the leading accounting firm and professional services network based in the UK, is reportedly being investigated by the nation’s accounting regulators for its Go-Ahead audits, the rail and bus operator that was involved in a scandal for wrongfully withholding £50 million of taxpayer money.



The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) stated that it is looking into Deloitte's audit of the annual financial reports of Go-Ahead between the year 2016 and 2021.



After discovering that more than £25 million in taxpayer funds had been held by the company for five years starting in 2014, the government stripped the right to run Southeastern, one of the largest train links in Britain, from the transport firm in September citing a severe breach of ethics.



Following an additional inquiry, it was determined that the total sum payable to the Department of Transport was £51.3 million, with anomalies preceding 2006. The indictment has been reported to the Serious Fraud Office for further investigation.



Deloitte UK's representative stated that the auditor will fully cooperate with the FRC inquiry. Deloitte stated that the company fully commits to the finest levels of audit quality.



The Department for Transport (DfT) penalized Go-Ahead £23.5 million last month for the scam.



Elodie Brian, the firm's chief financial officer (CFO), resigned last September after the scandal came to light. Brian was the CFO at Southeastern from 2014 to 2019, when the majority of the breaches happened. David Brown, the CEO of Go-Ahead, had resigned as well.



Last month, a week after the DfT issued the penalties, Govia, a joint venture headed by Go-Ahead as well as French company Keolis, was granted another contract to run UK's largest commuter railway network.



The rail union RMT called Govia's three year contract to keep the Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern (TSGN) franchise, which began April 1, a 'sick joke’.



Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/12/accounting-watchdog-investigates-deloitte-over-go-ahead-audits

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Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for numerous websites, including News Origins, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology.