Dentist perfects root canal, just by watching YouTube…

Dentist perfects root canal, just by watching YouTube

Apparently, most accountants enter the profession via recruitment by the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms. In the UK, those four firms are responsible for more than 90% of all accountancy services. There used to be a ‘big 5’ but something really bad happened to one of them..

The Big 4 (and others) use exam pass rates to attract graduates in a highly competitive market. Pass rates really matter for recruitment advantage

What’s needed is a good track record of getting people through their accountancy exams, right? Stop at nothing. Not cheating though? Surely?

In April 2024 Accountancy Daily ran headlines ‘The US audit regulator has issued its largest ever fine of $25m (£19.9m) to KPMG for exam cheating by staff and partners in the Netherlands, as well as misleading investigators’

‘The scale of the cheating over a five-year period was immense with hundreds of Dutch staff and partners, and senior leadership, involved’

Post Brexit, maybe you’re thinking ‘yeah, that’s the Dutch for you’ except the same article also states that ‘KPMG UK was fined £2m for exam cheating in 2022’

Can’t be true? Actually, it’s much worse! Get your device out, Google ‘Big 4 fines’ and see for yourself. You’ll find more than 50 interesting links (‘interesting’ is subjective, of course!)

Want more? Check out the SEC’s Press Release of 28 June 2022 where EY was fined $100m for exam cheating. To quote: ‘It’s simply outrageous that the very professionals responsible for catching cheating clients, cheated on ethics exams of all things’

Pretty sure none of this applies to your accountant, but it’s still true!

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