UK accountant PWC has been fined around £5m by the industry regulator as part of a probe into its audit failures at builders Kier and Galliford Try.
The Financial Reporting Council said PWC and audit partner Jonathan Hook had failed in a number of relevant requirements, including identifying and correcting errors in Kier’s income and cash flow statements relating to the presentation of gains on corporate sales completed in 2017.
The error led to the misstatement of the 2017 financial statements. PWC was fined £3.35m, adjusted for aggravating and mitigating factors and further discounted to just under £2m.
Hook was initially fined £90,000, but received a discount to around £52,650 after mitigation and cooperation with the FRC.
Both PwC and Hook were also fined for breaches in the audits of Galliford Try after finding a number of auditing faults.
The FRC had originally imposed a fine of £5.5m on PWC for the Galliford Try mistakes, which was ultimately cut to around £3m. Hook was issued with another discounted penalty of £82,875.
