Accountants’ organisation NBA wants to bring accountants who cheated in their compulsory exams before a disciplinary court, but the big accountancy firms are unwilling to name names, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Thursday.

The NBA has now asked law firm Pels Rijcken to look into the options for obtaining the names of hundreds of accountants who cheated so they can face the Accountants Chamber in Zwolle, which deals with complaints.

Action is necessary to restore faith in the sector, the NBA says.

The big four firms – KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte – have all admitted that some of their staff cheated during the exams all accountants are required to take, and the involvement of Pels Rijcken is a sign of how tense the situation has become, the FD said.

The exam fraud scandal erupted in 2022 when a whistleblower went public with allegations of cheating at KPMG. Shortly afterwards, the company confirmed that at least 500 workers at KPMG in the Netherlands had cheated during their compulsory exams.

The scandal led financial regulator AFM to order all the big accountancy firms to carry out an internal investigation into possible cheating. In October 2023, Deloitte Nederland said some of its workers too had been swapping answers. 

In October 2024, PwC said it too had evidence of cheating, but that the investigation is ongoing,  while EY made a similar admission in November. In total, hundreds of accountants are involved.

The NBA regards cheating as a breach of the accountant’s professional oath and its own code of conduct. The court has the power to ban people from practising the profession either temporarily or permanently.

The NBA declined to comment in detail on the involvement of the legal firm, and KPMG, Deloitte, and EY told the paper they were in talks with the sector organisation. PwC told the FD it was aware of the NBA’s request but that “our priorities lie with our own investigation, in which we have regular contact with the AFM [Dutch watchdog] and PCAOB [US regulator].”

NBA chairman Kris Douma, who is not an accountant himself, has made resolving misunderstandings in the sector a priority and said that exam fraud undermines confidence in the entire profession.

“It is a breach of the code of conduct and professional oath and cannot be without legal consequences,” the FD quoted him as saying.