IT was the audit account that never was.
IT was the audit account that never was.
Coogee Chemicals, an unlisted company with revenue of about $200 million a year, was a major catch for mid-tier accounting firm PKF just a few months ago.
PKF had won the job after a competitive tender process that pitched it against other mid-tier firms in Perth.
But the arrangement lasted just a few weeks, up until the Perth audit partners jumped ship to Deloitte.
Coogee Chemicals executive chairman Gordon Martin was not interested in becoming an audit client of one of the big four and he pulled his business, shifting the account to RSM Bird Cameron, which had been second-placed in the recently completed tender process.
It appears to be a good account to win. The last auditor, from Stirling Partners, did the job for 20 years.
Mr Martin acknowledges it was probably time for a change when his previous auditor told him he’d need to find someone else, but he valued the long relationship and how much that added to the annual process of delving into the company’s books.
“The reason we changed was the person doing that had got to an age where he said ‘I think you should go somewhere else’,” Mr Martin said.
“I did not want to go with the big four. We wanted a second-tier firm, we are a private company. In smaller firms you tend to have people stay longer.”
Mr Martin was also clearly annoyed to find that circumstances had changed so significantly after running a tender process that took three to four months.
At the beginning of the current financial year, PKF’s three audit partners and their staff quit the partnership to move across to Deloitte. PKF’s tax partners quit the brand soon after to join another mid-tier firm, BDO.
PKF has since shut its Perth office and is not currently represented here.
Last week, WA Business News revealed that construction giant BGC had shifted over to Deloitte with the former PKF audit partners, though it has been left with a significant vacant space at its BGC Centre.
Most PKF audit clients have shifted to Deloitte but some are known to be moving elsewhere.
Breakaway Resources used Deloitte this year but is asking for shareholder approval at its annual meeting to appoint MGI Perth as its new auditor.
Similarly, Nucoal Resources and Rialto Energy want to use Ernst & Young, Alchemy Resources wants to appoint BDO, Alexium International Group and Astro Resources want Stanton International, Phosphate Australia has sought Grant Thornton and Wild Acre Metals has sought Maxim Audit.
