PWC comes out more than dozens of countries in pressure to avoid scandals

Digest opened free editor

Rola Khaleda, FT editor, chooses her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

PWC has stopped operations in more than ten countries whose international presidents considered very small, risky or unintended, as they seek to avoid the repetition of the scandals afflicted with the accounting network.

The four major accounting company, which works as a global network of locally owned partnerships, cut ties with its ten companies in Francophone Africa at the beginning of this month after the escalation of differences with local partners, according to persons familiar with the discussions.

Local leaders said that they have lost more than a third of their work in recent years, as they were pressured by the international executives of PWC to stop serving the risky customer, and began negotiating the exit of last year.

The separation has been completed after only months PWC Cutting ties with its members of Zimbabwe and Malawi and Figi, according to a record of PWC entities and local news reports.

One of the persons familiar with the decision -making process said that PWC was dropping smaller members that could expose it to reputation risks or had no scale to make the required investments in compliance systems. KPMG told the competition to be smaller members You must mergeI mentioned financial times last month.

A former PWC partner bearing the responsibility of compliance said that international leaders have spent an inconsistent time to focus on Africa Although its revenues are low compared to other regions.

Mohamed Candy, the global president of PWC, has dealt with the repercussions of scandals on multiple continents since she took over the role in July, including in some of the largest national companies in PWC.

In China, it was found that the local company “hides or even overcoming” at Evergrande real estate developer and was prevented from signing scrutiny for a period of six months, which prompted A. Customer exit. In Australia, the disclosure that the tax partner has offended the use of secret government information Causing. Either way, the global PWC leaders enter the local leaders.

The company was also I was prevented from working For the sovereign wealth fund in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a year.

“PWC has become more risks than in the past, and we can understand it,” said Nadine Tenn, who was a partner in Frankovon, African Francophone. “When you look at the risk standards related to transparency and corruption, you will always find countries in Francophone Africa. It’s not new.”

PWC’s business in the region has been subject to an increase in scrutiny by international presidents since the disclosure of the Congo in 2021, when documents that were leaked were identified widespread corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including through the banks they reviewed by PWC.

After the consecutive cleansing of customers called the leaks, the state of “survival, death, leaving and trying to prosper” was outside the PWC network, according to one local executive director.

Nearly half of PWC partners in African Africa joined one of two hidden projects: Vinka, run by Tineen, which is based in Cameroon and aims to re -establish a major accounting process and a large consultation of four models throughout the region, or Mansa, a network of rural -based partnerships that focus on taxes and legal work. Both projects say they will maintain PWC standards, but they are responding to local needs.

Tin said: “Estimating the risk in Africa can be different if you live here if you live abroad,” Tin said.

PWC refused to comment on its reduction all over the world, along with a short statement on its website that the exit of African African companies was the result of a strategic review. She said: “The PWC network will maintain a strong presence in Africa and have the continuity of the service in force for our customers.”