P&O Ferries hires four-man firm after accounting fiasco
Just Audit & Assurance, which describes itself as 'a specialist firm created to address the specialist needs of the smaller company and charity audits', will audit the ferry operator's accounts, which are overdue.
Experts said the decision to appoint such a small auditor raised potential concerns over the financial health and governance standards of P&O Ferries.
Atul Shah, a professor of accounting at City St George's, University of London, said: 'This is pure and simple opinion shopping, something which a public interest and regulated profession should strongly and publicly reprimand.'
Notably, large corporations almost always use larger and more established firms to audit their accounts owing to the complexity of the work involved and the scale of the work required.
Just Audit & Assurance, is based in Witney, Oxfordshire, and has just two partners and a total of four staff, according to Companies House filings.
Of all the companies listed on the FTSE 100 index, just one used an accountancy firm outside of the 'big four' – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – to audit their accounts last year, Financial Reporting Council data show.
P&O Ferries, which is owned by the Dubai-based ports and logistics giant DP World, was already months late in filing its financial statements for 2023 when KPMG quit as auditor in March, having worked with the company since 2007.
Commenting on its resignation at the time, KPMG said it was 'not possible to complete an audit of the 2023 accounts to the required standard within management's desired timetable'.
In a letter outlining its decision, KPMG said it believed it would be unable to audit the accounts in a timely manner as 'some of the drivers of that delay remain'.
It comes following a torrid few years for P&O Ferries after it was attacked for sacking almost 800 seafarers via text message and replacing them with cheaper staff.
Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O's chief executive, later admitted that he deliberately chose to ignore trade unions during the process, leading Labour to introduce legislation to protect jobs and wages in the maritime sector.
Last year, the company's owner DP World clashed with the Government after Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, called it a 'rogue operator'.
Sir Keir Starmer disowned Ms Haigh's comments, declaring they were 'not the view of the Government', after DP World pulled out of a Labour-backed investment summit.
Jonathan Russell, partner at Just Audit & Assurance said: 'Just because we're a small audit firm, it doesn't mean we'll do an inferior job.'
He said he expects to charge lower fees than KPMG, at about £265,000. He said that alongside his four full-time employees, he also has access to 35 freelancers.
P&O Ferries and KPMG declined to comment.
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