Frasers Group faces significant audit discrepancies impacting its fashion brands, I Saw It First and Choice.
- Auditors for I Saw It First could not confirm almost £7 million in wage payments.
- Choice’s auditors reported missing essential information, impeding their audit process.
- The payroll data loss at I Saw It First occurred during a system migration.
- These issues raise fresh concerns about the corporate governance of Frasers Group.
Auditing problems have surfaced for two fashion brands under Frasers Group, raising alarms about the firm’s financial management. Auditors at Cooper Parry could not verify nearly £7 million in wages and salary payments for I Saw It First, according to a report by This is Money.
In the case of Choice, acquired by Frasers Group from JD Sports at the end of 2022, auditors from Hart Shaw have encountered obstacles due to missing critical data needed to conclude their audit. The absence of this information has stymied their efforts, compounding the challenges faced by Frasers Group.
A spokesperson for I Saw It First explained that the company lost some payroll data during the transition to Frasers Group’s accounting systems. “A limited set of I Saw It First payroll data can no longer be accessed because it was not migrated on to Frasers Group’s systems during the post-acquisition integration process, and the I Saw It First system which it was stored on no longer exists,” they stated.
These developments have reignited discussions about Frasers Group’s governance structure. The Financial Reporting Council had previously examined the accounts of Sports Direct International, now known as Frasers, for the 2016 fiscal year, which led to a £1.3 million fine for their former auditor, Grant Thornton, due to significant audit failures.
These audit challenges pose critical questions about the financial oversight and governance within Frasers Group.
