KPMG tops Whitehall schmooze league

KPMG is the accountancy profession’s most prolific winer and diner of
Britain’s top civil servants, according to government records which lift the lid
on the secretive lobbying industry.

KPMG entertained 35 senior Whitehall officials, followed by
PricewaterhouseCoopers (29), Deloitte (25) and Ernst & Young (22), records
published by the Cabinet Office have revealed.

Grant Thornton entertained only two civil servants and Baker Tilly just one.

E&Y and KPMG provided hospitality to cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell
and
Department for Business permanent secretary Sir Brian Bender.

E&Y took both men and their wives to Chelsea Flower Show, with two
breakfast appointments with Sir Brian.

The firm’s flower show guests also included Home Office chief Sir David

Normington.

Deloitte lunched with Oliver Robbins, principal private secretary to the
Prime
Minister and guardian of Gordon Brown’s inner sanctum.

KPMG took Robbins for dinner and bought him a drink.

The list of events attended by officials ranged from accepting a single drink

from commercial lobbyists to Ernst & Young providing ‘dinner and private
viewing’ for Roger Marsh, director-general for strategic finance and operations
in the
Cabinet Office.

The National Audit Office and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
England and Wales spent money on schmoozing seven times each and the Audit
Commission five.