Shell denies auditor sign off refusal
Troubled oil group Royal Dutch/Shell has been forced to deny that the delay in publishing its annual report was caused by the refusal of joint auditor KPMG to sign off the accounts.
The accounts, due to be published last Friday, were delayed after yet another underestimation of the company’s oil reserves was discovered.
Shell said speculation that KPMG would not sign off the accounts was untrue as they had not yet been given to the auditor. It claimed that it first needed to clarify information about the reserves, according to The Times.
The delay will see further pressure on the board to remove executives implicated in the misreporting of reserves, including chief financial officer Judy Boynton. The company is due to meet with concerned investors at the headquarters of the Association of British Insurers today.