KPMG’s Dubai partners urge global leadership to suspend of Emirati bosses

A group of senior partners at KPMG’s Dubai business have called on the Big Four accounting firm’s global leadership to suspend bosses at its UAE division, over allegations of nepotism, cronyism, and a culture of fear within the firm.

The Dubai partners are calling on KPMG International’s top executives to parachute in a temporary chief executive and bring in a turnaround team to deal with the “massive crisis” developing inside the Emirati business, according to the Financial Times.

The email to KPMG’s international leadership, on behalf of ten executives at the Big Four accounting firm’s Lower Gulf business, follows reports of an attempted coup inside the firm.

The coup attempt came after partners raised concerns about perceived conflicts-of-interest in the decision to appoint the brother-in-law of the Dubai firm’s chief executive to a top-ranking position.

Partners also raised concerns that KPMG Lower Gulf chief executive Nader Haffar secured his own position, for an extra five years, through an election in which he faced no opposition.

The head of the Emirati business later vowed to rerun the election for his position and bring in an external law firm to oversee the process, after partners held a secret no-confidence vote.

The email accuses Haffar of surrounding himself with “cronies” in key position to create culture of fear, in which partners are afraid to express dissenting views.

The partners are also calling for an independent committee to assess Haffar’s performance amid concerns about the profitability of the Lower Gulf business under his leadership.

The letter accuses Haffar of harming the firm’s profitability by hiring well remunerated senior executives and paying for expensive PR campaigns aimed at boosting his own image.

The partners accused Haffar of using the 1 Billion Meals campaign to bolster his own image, by contributing an excessive sum to the initiative.

The partners raised concerns that under Haffar’s leadership, average profits per partner have dropped from $800,000 in 2018 to around projected sums of $450,000 per partner in 2022.

A KPMG spokesperson said: “KPMG Lower Gulf has engaged an external leading global law firm to undertake the governance review that it has previously communicated, and that review process is underway.” 

“Over the past five years, and despite the impact of Covid, KPMG Lower Gulf has consistently grown year on year almost doubling its revenue, the number of Partners and its employees, and has made significant investments in process, technologies and capabilities.” 

“KPMG LG is dedicated to CSR initiatives that support our communities and society and we are very proud of the contribution that the Company and over 300 of its employees made to the UAE’s ‘I Billion Meals’ initiative, which ran through the holy month of Ramadan. The size of this contribution was in line with many other local and international brands.”