Over 15 PwC tax professionals quit to join KPMG

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 30 December 2009, 14:48 IST   |    35 Comments
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Over 15 PwC tax professionals quit to join KPMG
Mumbai: Dinesh Kanabar, the Head of tax practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has resigned, along with 15 executive directors, in a move seen to reflect the discomfiture of many in PwC India over the parent firm's move to assert tighter control, reports Economic Times. Kanabar and most of his colleagues will join KPMG, a rival audit and consulting firm, according to people familiar with the matter. While Kanabar confirmed his resignation from PwC, he declined to comment on why he had left. "It won't be fair to comment on that right now," he told Economic Times. "There were issues of integration (in PwC) and I am moving on for better prospects," he added. The 15 executive directors were all colleagues of Kanabar in the tax practice part of the audit firm. These developments come days after PwC effected a change in its top guard as part of measures to contain the fallout of its alleged involvement in the Satyam fraud case. PwC's audit arm Price Waterhouse was the auditor for Satyam and investigators have jailed two of its Hyderabad-based partners for their alleged connivance in the wrongful inflation of accounts at the software firm that is estimated to have grossed 7,000 crore. Speculation about the rumblings within the top hierarchy at PwC had increased after the global parent initiated changes in PwC India early December by appointing Gautam Banerjee, Head of PwC Singapore, as Head of the India network. The top level changes were effected without elections, and had sparked rumours that seniors partners within the firm were unhappy. Kanabar was seen as one of the top contenders for Rajan's job and sources close to him said that he was unhappy over the induction of Banerjee as the boss of PwC India. But, two senior PwC executives Economic Times spoke to, denied any link between the reshuffle post Satyam and Kanabar's exit. "We can confirm that Dinesh Kanabar, Executive Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, has resigned, along with some tax executive directors," a PwC spokesperson said in a formal statement. PwC said that it has appointed Ketan Dalal and Shyamal Mukherjee as the new joint leaders for the tax and regulatory practice. "Both Ketan and Shyamal are senior and highly-reputed tax professionals and have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills," said a PwC statement.

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