We act ethically and transparently

Quality and Risk Management

Carolyn Břečťanová

Carolyn Břečťanová

Director, Quality and Risk Management

„The type of business we do impacts the ethics and transparency standards on the Czech market. We are well aware of our commitment towards clients, capital markets and the general public. Applying the highest standards of quality, ethics and integrity has to be the essential foundation of our business.“

Our values

We lead by example

No matter at what position and level, our behaviour sets examples and shows what we expect from others.

We work together

We bring out the best in each other by creating strong and successful working relationships.

We respect the individual

We respect people for who they are and for their knowledge, skills and experience as individuals and team members.

We seek facts and provide insights

We challenge assumptions and pursue facts, thereby strengthening our reputation as trusted and objective business advisers.

We communicate honestly and openly

We share information, insight and advice frequently and constructively and manage tough situations with courage and candour.

We are committed to our communities

We support educational, environmental and social projects with our expertise and funding.

We act with integrity and uphold moral and ethical principles

We adhere to the highest professional standards as a basis on which we provide advice to our clients.

1. Our commitment towards clients

Our KPMG teams are made up of specialists equipped with relevant expertise and the necessary experience. We actively control all processes of each engagement and carefully monitor them, point to agreed milestones and follow approved timetables. We work efficiently and make the most of our knowledge so that our cooperation with clients is as beneficial as possible and disturbs the clients' standard work flow as little as possible. We are available to address ad hoc issues throughout the year and can promptly react to the clients' needs.

We contact clients only with essential requests; our role is to support them and to finalise matters independently, not make them more complicated. We provide on-going feedback on the progress of each engagement and all matters that may have an impact on the clients’ decision-making. Straight-forward behaviour is the basis of open and sincere cooperation. If there is something we cannot do or if we know others who can do it better - we will say so. We always try to find mutually acceptable solutions.

We charge neither unreasonable additional charges nor fees that have not been approved by our clients in advance. We look for synergies and opportunities for improvement and we pro-actively advise clients when they may save time and costs and mitigate risks. .

2. We create and nourish long-term relationships with clients

A designated client partner is responsible for the quality of all services provided by KPMG to each particular client and may be contacted whenever clients need to do so. The partner coordinates the communication and relationship with the client and bears the responsibility for the client's satisfaction.

We help our clients to stay abreast of news in their field and get together with them e.g. at conferences, training courses and seminars that we organise; we also prepare analyses, research and benchmarking studies for them.

3. Engagement work principles

In managing independence, we make use of a world-wide KPMG application, which records and monitors all KPMG investments including the private investments of partners and managers.

We also use a global electronic system for controlling independence and conflicts of interest, which allows us to review and approve business relations between KPMG and clients within our global network of KPMG offices. This helps ensure that KPMG member firm engagement teams provide only services which are not in conflict with our independence and impartiality.

KPMG member firms follow strict internal confidentiality guidelines regarding client-related information and all information obtained during engagements is considered confidential. All KPMG employees including administrative, support and technical department staff are obliged to maintain confidentiality. 

Quality and risk management principles and instruments

  • We have a comprehensive quality and risk management system in place, which fully complies with the International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC 1), the codes of ethics for auditors, accounting experts and attorneys-at-law, as well as rules required by international regulators.

In general, our quality management system rests on the following pillars:

  • Management is responsible for our corporate culture and our quality as well as risk management.
  • We only work for clients who do business in line with valid regulations and follow ethical business principles.

We use a global electronic system which serves to review services provided not only to a specific company but also to its related entities to monitor our independence and any potential conflicts of interest.

For each individual client and every engagement, we assess the effect of our cooperation on our firm's reputation.

We apply clear rules and robust methodologies and adhere to high quality and expertise standards.

Every year, all employees complete mandatory training sessions and reconfirm their independence towards our audit clients.

Employees regularly participate in training courses focusing on legal compliance and ethical conduct.

Each function comprises a broad methodological background and tools complying with regulatory requirements and reflecting the newest trends in the given industry.

Annually employees participate in a range of expert training courses.

We carry out rigorous and effective HR management practices and controls.

Our employees are our main asset. To be able to offer the quality services and added value which our clients expect from us, we support a motivating and inspiring working environment and corporate culture. To adequately promote KPMG's reputation employees need to adhere to our values. The recruitment of suitable candidates and their professional growth is crucial.

We apply efficient engagement management processes.

Each engagement is managed precisely in compliance with clear rules and set process procedures. Timely involvement of managers and partners into the engagement process is standard.

We are constantly striving for improvement.

The quality standard put in place involves regular annual KPMG review of selected engagements by staff of other member firms, reviewing compliance with all internal corporate regulations.

All employees as well as any third party may make use of the KPMG Ethics Hotline to report issues or complain about unethical behaviour.

The firm’s corporate culture and its values vital for a successful and sustainable business are contained in the the Code of Ethics.

We want to play an important role in the cultivation of the entrepreneurial environment which is why we participate in projects designed to promote it.

  • Coalition for Transparent Business

    We are one of the founding members of the Coalition for Transparent Business, whose goal is the cultivation of a transparent entrepreneurial environment in the Czech Republic. For more information

  • Reconstructing the State

    We want to function in an ethical entrepreneurial environment. We therefore support Reconstructing the State, a joint project of anti-corruption organisations, companies, citizens in the regions and politicians, who are bothered by the current level of corruption in the Czech Republic

  • Recommendations for Public Tender Contractors

    We are a signatory of the Recommendations for Public Tender Contractors, which supports more transparent public tender and public contractor selection processes. For more information

Knowledge Management

Zuzana Vovsová

Zuzana Vovsová

Senior Manager, Knowledge Management

"We are a knowledge-based organisation. To be able to provide premium services to our clients, we strive to develop and share our knowledge.

Knowledge is at the heart of our business and embedded in everything we do.

Our people and work teams cooperate efficiently, search for and share knowledge on a daily basis and can thus provide high quality and timely services to our clients. We do not abandon them in their effort.

Knowledge management's main goal is to deliver the right information at the right time and in the right context.”

Our knowledge management principles:

  • Share your knowledge.
  • Be aware of what you can and cannot share.
  • Keep the knowledge you share up-to-date and relevant.
  • Make it easy for others to find you and any non-documentable knowledge you may have.
  • Keep your personal data in the firm’s profiles updated.
  • Do not detain your knowledge in closed communities or systems.
  • Use uniform systems and applications for knowledge sharing..

The knowledge-sharing strategy has been built on three pillars – contents, the interconnectedness of people and a culture of sharing. At the same time, it is supported by our organisational structure, technologies and change management.

Etika a transparentnost

We share content

We make external information sources available to our colleagues (e.g. information on companies, interconnectedness of companies by assets, industrial analyses, news releases).

Etika a transparentnost

We interconnect our employees

We interconnect our employees and accelerate the sharing of information through instruments such as KPMG's intranet (Portal) and the Hub (our internal social network).

Etika a transparentnost

We make use of technologies

We take advantage of all global knowledge sharing tools throughout KPMG and try to avoid duplicate systems both within the firm as well as on a global scale.

Etika a transparentnost

A culture of sharing

We have an organisational structure in place and assigned roles and responsibilities that support knowledge sharing.

  • We implement and promote knowledge sharing tools and processes.
  • Our aim is to increase our employees’ awareness of available knowledge sharing tools and to make knowledge sharing an integral part of every employee's work cycle.

Knowledge management tools

KPMG Portal

Portál KPMG

The corporate intranet connects all global KPMG network member firms.

It contains our entire internal know-how, methodologies, processes and sample statements.

The average monthly number of visits to the Czech KPMG Portal website was 157 976 in 2013 and 165 660 in 2014.

HUB (internal social network)

Interní sociální síť HUB

The Hub is an internal communication and cooperation tool for all employees of the global KPMG network of firms.

The Hub contains a total of 1 738 discussion groups on various topics.

As part of the global KPMG network, 49 775 employees from 26 member firms are registered on the Hub. Out of that, 29 588 are active participants. Contents has so far been contributed by 3 033 of them. Since the Hub’s inception, 4 958 employees have taken part in chats.

A total of 38% of KPMG Czech Republic employees are currently registered on the HUB.

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