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Friday Footnotes: Deloitte’s Plush Profits; Britney’s New CPA Conservator; KPMG Gives a Partner the Boot | 10.1.21

Deloitte UK profits boosted by public sector pandemic work [Financial Times] Deloitte has confirmed a surge in UK profits helped by public sector contracts during the pandemic, saying that its work on the response to Covid-19 was “essential”. Revenues at the firm’s UK and Swiss businesses, which operate as a single partnership, rose 4.2 per cent to £4.49bn in the 12 months to the end of May, buoyed by demand for its consulting and deal advisory services.

The PCAOB hasn’t published pandemic period audit inspection results yet but PwC promises nearly zero defects [The Dig] Francine McKenna wrote: PwC was in the hot seat after results deteriorated for 2019. But overnight improvements in audit inspection results are not that easy to achieve.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Retirees Win on Liability, Class Status [Bloomberg Law] PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP retirees seeking higher pension benefits notched another win Thursday, when a federal judge in Manhattan declined to decertify their long-running class action and ruled that the company is liable to them under federal benefits law. PwC violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by choosing an unlawful normal retirement age for its pension plan and by using a 30-year Treasury interest rate to project participants’ benefits in the course of calculating their distributions, Judge J. Paul Oetken of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said.

What To Know About Britney Spears’ New Conservator Who Jamie Spears Claims Is ‘Unqualified’ [Your Tango] John Zabel is a licensed certified public accountant, in addition to working at Media Finance Structures. Zabel’s first major job was working as a senior auditor for Arthur Young & Co. from 1981 to 1984. He also worked as a senior auditor for Ernst & Young Co. during the same years of 1981 to 1984.

PCAOB moves to strengthen lead auditor’s oversight of other auditors [Journal of Accountancy] The lead auditor’s role in planning and executing a public company audit that involves other auditors would be enhanced under a proposal posted Tuesday in a second supplemental request for comment by the PCAOB. The PCAOB has been looking for years to strengthen requirements that apply to audits involving accounting firms and individual auditors that are outside the accounting firm that issues the auditor’s report.

Named in Magma case, KPMG ousts partner [Times of India] From last week: Days after managing director Abhay Bhutada quit following the Sebi action on insider trading in erstwhile Magma Fincorp shares, KPMG India on Monday terminated the services of one of its partners, Saumil Shah. The move came after Shah was named in the Sebi investigation into the insider trading at Magma, now renamed Poonawalla Fincorp after it was taken over. Chairman Adar Poonawalla has said that the company is carrying out an independent investigation too into the recent events that led to the exit of Bhutada.

UCLA accounting lecturer files lawsuit against dean and UC Board of Regents [Daily Bruin] UCLA lecturer Gordon Klein filed a lawsuit Monday against the dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and University of California Board of Regents. The lawsuit against Dean Antonio Bernardo and the UC Regents alleged the university’s conduct breached his employment contract, violated his right to privacy and amounted to retaliatory discrimination.

EY Wins $200M Air Force Audit Contract [GovConWire] EY has secured a potential five-year, $200.2 million contract to examine data on general and working capital funds at the Department of the Air Force. The professional services firm will perform financial statement audit work for DAF, which is composed of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, under the labor-hour contract with a 12-month base period along with four one-year option periods, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.