It's a topsy-turvy world: KPMG tops corporate responsibility list

KPMG, one of the most important private-sector planks of the entire global offshore system, won an award for corporate social irresponsibility at the Public Eye on Davos in 2005. Now we have this, from Accountancy Magazine:

"KPMG is one of only 10 organisations in the UK to have achieved the highest rating in the Business in the Community's 2010 Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index. The firm is placed in the platinum plus band of the latest edition of the CR Index, which is the UK's leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility."

And, perhaps most appalling of all:

"KPMG's commitment to its communities was also recognised, with all employees able to use half a day's paid time a month for volunteering."

Commitment to communities?

Just to refresh memories, it is worth recalling that KPMG is the company that organised a business symposium back in 2006 at which participants concluded that "tax avoidance does not damage corporate reputations and may even enhance them", and according to Senator Carl Levin, chair of the US Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations, KPMG "knowingly, purposefully and wilfully violated the federal tax shelter law" on the incredible basis that the fee income generated by this activity exceeded potential fines by a considerable margin.

By helping shift vast wealth away from ordinary folk and towards wealthy elites? If ever there were a case of missing the elephant in the room, this is it. To view the elephant, click here.