The UK’s audit watchdog has hit another Deloitte partner with a fine as part of a longstanding investigation into outsourcer Serco’s prisoner-tagging scandal.
The Financial Reporting Council today published a settlement agreed over misconduct admitted by Ross Howard in relation to Deloitte’s audit for 2012 of Serco’s subsidiary Serco Geografix.
That subsidiary “dishonestly misled” the Ministry of Justice over profits made for tagging people released from prison between 2010 and 2013.
Serco’s boss Rupert Soames, who joined after the scandal, has apologised on several occasions, reformed the business, and his firm agreed a £19.2 million fine in July 2019.
Earlier this year the FRC slapped Deloitte with a £4.2 million fine for failings in its audit and fined another partner.
Howard, who was Deloitte’s audit engagement partner for Serco Geografix for the 2012 results, has been fined £78,000 (discounted from £120,000).
A Deloitte spokesman said it recognises and regrets the work “was below the professional standards expected of us”.
He added: "We have a programme of continuous improvement for our audit quality processes, which have evolved significantly since these audits were performed. We have also specifically agreed with the FRC certain actions focussed on learning lessons from the shortcomings in this audit work.”
