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42-849: MRLS is a member of PINES , a program of the Georgia Public Library Service that covers 53 library systems in 143 counties of Georgia. Any resident in a PINES supported library system has access to over 10.6 million books in the system's circulation. The library is also serviced by GALILEO , a program of the University System of Georgia which stands for "GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online". This program offers residents in supported libraries access to over 100 databases indexing thousands of periodicals and scholarly journals . It also boasts over 10,000 journal titles in full text . The Mountain Regional Library System originated as

84-740: A Swiss Verein to a co-operative under Swiss law in 2003 and to a limited company in 2020. This structure in which the Limited company provides support services only to the member firms is similar to other professional services networks . The member firms provide the services to the client. The purpose is to limit the liability of each independent member. KPMG's global chairman is Bill Thomas, former senior partner and CEO of Canadian member firm KPMG LLP. Some KPMG member firms are registered as multidisciplinary entities that also provide legal services in certain jurisdictions. In India , where regulations do not permit foreign auditing firms to operate, KPMG

126-400: A white paper was created exploring the feasibility of a statewide public library card for Georgia. As Georgia had consistently ranked among the lowest states in public library funding per capita it was agreed that a universal library card could be of great benefit to the residents of Georgia as long as the affiliated libraries were unified under one single integrated library system (ILS). It

168-406: A $ 400 million fraud took action against KPMG with regard to its refusal to honor a February 2016 court order to produce Chinese working papers, correspondence, and records to the liquidators. The liquidators are asking that 91 defendants be held in contempt of court , which could result in criminal penalties, or weekly fines. KPMG had issued written audit reports for CMED from 2003 to 2008, and

210-549: A former KPMG LLP partner in charge of KPMG's US Los Angeles-based Pacific Southwest audit practice, admitted passing on stock tips about clients, including Herbalife , Skechers , and other companies, to his friend Bryan Shaw, a California jewelry-store owner. In return Shaw gave London $ 70,000 as well as gifts that included a $ 12,000 Rolex watch and concert tickets. On 6 May, Shaw agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud . He also agreed to pay around $ 1.3 million in restitution, and to cooperate with

252-635: A grouping of independent national practices to create a strong European-based international firm. Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft CEO Reinhard Goerdeler (son of leading anti-Nazi activist Carl Goerdeler , who would have become Chancellor if Operation Valkyrie had succeeded) became the first CEO of KMG. In the United States, Main Lafrentz & Co. merged with Hurdman and Cranstoun to form Main Hurdman & Cranstoun. In 1987, KMG and Peat Marwick joined forces in

294-456: A partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud . This is an attempt to leverage Google products in the workplace, develop AI agents and overall make the workforce familiar with the technology. Each national KPMG firm is an independent legal entity and is a member of KPMG International Limited, a UK Limited Company incorporated in London, United Kingdom. KPMG International changed its legal structure from

336-581: A small public library to service the counties of Towns and Union, Georgia. This library, aptly named the Towns-Union Regional Library, was founded in 1946 by both the counties, as well as Young Harris College , which agreed to sponsor and provide space for the library in its infancy. The library thus was originally set up in the Rich Building on Young Harris College's campus. By 1957, Fannin County

378-560: Is currently the most visited library in the system. By 2014 the Towns County Public Library in Hiawassee also underwent renovations, costing $ 1 million, to completely refurbish the building and update it to modern standards. Public Information Network for Electronic Services The Public Information Network for Electronic Services (or PINES ) is the nearly statewide library consortium and its online library catalog of

420-779: Is licensed as an investment bank and carries out audits under the name of BSR & Co, an auditing firm KPMG purchased after the 1992 liberalisation of the Indian economy . During March 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine , KPMG announced that their Russian and Belarusian firms would leave the KPMG network. KPMG is organised into the following three service lines that generated $ 36 billion in revenue (the 2023 revenue shares are listed in parentheses): Tax arrangements relating to tax avoidance and multinational corporations and Luxembourg which were negotiated by KPMG became public in 2014 in

462-589: The Big Four accounting organizations, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte , and PwC . The name "KPMG" stands for "Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler". The initialism was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) merged with Peat Marwick in 1987. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 273,424 employees. It has three lines of services: financial audit , tax, and advisory . Its tax and advisory services are further divided into various service groups. Over

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504-534: The Georgia Public Library Service . By June 2017, the catalog consisted of books from 284 library facilities in 143 counties across the U.S. state of Georgia with a collection size of 10.6 million items, all of which are searchable by anyone with a PINES library card which can be obtained free of charge from any PINES-participating library. The PINES system effectively turns most of the state of Georgia into one huge library. PINES cardholders are able to request an interlibrary loan from any affiliated library, and

546-501: The Isle of Man . KPMG US terminated five partners in its audit practice, including the head of its audit practice in the US, after an investigation of advanced confidential knowledge of planned audit inspections by its Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). This followed criticism about KPMG's failure to uncover illegal sales practices at Wells Fargo or potential corruption at FIFA ,

588-686: The Madoff " Ponzi scheme ". Class action suits were filed. In August, it was reported by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority to the Swedish accountancy regulator after HQ Bank was forced into involuntary liquidation after the Financial Supervisory Authority revoked all its licences for breach of banking regulations. In August, KPMG conducted due diligence work on Hewlett-Packard 's $ 11.1 billion acquisition of

630-511: The 21st century. Some libraries were still not automated as well. The PINES initiative would give these libraries access first, bringing their services into the modern era. Looking to complete the project before the year 2000, on April 8, 1999, the initial contract to develop the ILS was awarded to KPMG partnered with the SIRSI Corporation and Sun Microsystems . In December 1999 the new software

672-563: The British software company Autonomy . In November 2012 HP announced an $ 8.8 billion write off due to "serious accounting improprieties" committed by Autonomy management prior to the acquisition. According to an independent panel formed to investigate irregular payments made by Olympus which reported in December, KPMG's affiliate in Japan did not identify fraud at the company. In April, Scott London,

714-535: The Netherlands is the only country with two members of KPMG International: KPMG Audit (accountants) and Meijburg & Co (tax consultants). In 1991, the firm was renamed KPMG Peat Marwick, and in 1999, the name was reduced again to KPMG. In October 1997, KPMG and Ernst & Young announced they would merge. However, while the merger to form PwC was granted regulatory approval, the KPMG/Ernst & Young tie-up

756-681: The PINES system. Most of those are in the Atlanta metropolitan area , but the library systems of the Columbus metropolitan area are also outside of the PINES system. In February 2018, the Live Oak Public Libraries of the Savannah metropolitan area joined the PINES consortium. KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG ) is a multinational professional services network , and one of

798-554: The UK by the end of 2013. KPMG agreed to pay $ 125 million and $ 75 million to settle lawsuits stemming from the firm's audits of Rite Aid and Oxford Health Plans Inc., respectively. KPMG agreed to pay $ 115 million to settle lawsuits stemming from the collapse of software company Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV. During August, KPMG LLP admitted to criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay US$ 456 million in fines, restitution, and penalties as part of an agreement to defer prosecution of

840-622: The United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein merged to form KPMG Europe LLP in October 2007. These member firms were followed by Spain , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , CIS ( Azerbaijan , Russia , Ukraine , Belarus , Kyrgyzstan , Kazakhstan , Armenia and Georgia ), Turkey , Norway , and Saudi Arabia . They appointed joint Chairmen, John Griffith-Jones and Ralf Nonnenmacher. In 2020, KPMG International Limited

882-641: The balance sheet for a potential large fine (up to £1 billion) arising out of the Carillion lawsuit. In April 2022, it was announced that KPMG will acquire 50% of the UK-based venture capital advisory specialist Acceleris subject to approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. In August 2022, KPMG announced plans to downsize its office footprint in New York City in 2025, when it moves its offices in

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924-468: The city from Midtown Manhattan to Two Manhattan West in Hudson Yards . In May 2024, KPMG partners approved the merger of its UK and Switzerland firms, which are working across audit, legal, tax, and advisory, and generating $ 4.4 billion annually. In November 2024, KPMG announced that it would spend $ 100 million over the next four years  to boost its enterprise artificial intelligence services via

966-554: The current software no more libraries would be able to be added to the system. As a result, the GPLS explored the possibility of creating their own software, and on June 4, 2004, a press release by the state librarian outlined a two-year development plan for a new PINES ILS software called Evergreen . The new ILS was completed and ready to go live in September 2006. On September 1, the Sirsi ILS

1008-738: The financial statements of British aerospace company, Rolls-Royce plc for the year ended December 2010. In August, KPMG US paid a $ 6.2 million fine to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for inadequacies in its audit of the financial statements of oil and gas company, Miller Energy Resources. It also found KPMG guilty of a long list of violations with regard to its audits, including "lack of competence" and "highly unreasonable conduct." In November, 91 partners of KPMG Hong Kong faced contempt proceedings in Hong Kong High Court , as China Medical Technologies (CMED) liquidators investigating

1050-674: The firm, according to the US Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to the agreement, nine individuals-including six former KPMG partners and the former deputy chairman of the firm were to be criminally prosecuted. As alleged in a series of charging documents, the fraud relates to the design, marketing, and implementation of fraudulent tax shelters. American real estate financing firm Fannie Mae sued KPMG for malpractice for approving years of erroneous financial statements . In February, KPMG Germany

1092-419: The first mega-merger of large accounting firms and formed a firm called KPMG in the United States and most of the rest of the world and Peat Marwick McLintock in the United Kingdom. In the Netherlands, due to the merger between PMI and KMG in 1988, PMI tax advisors joined Meijburg & Co. (The tax advisory agency Meijburg & Co. was founded by Willem Meijburg, Inspector of National Taxes, in 1939). Today,

1134-523: The governing international body of football. It was reported in 2017 that KPMG had the highest number of deficiencies, among the Big Four , cited by its regulator in the previous two years. This includes two annual inspections that were compromised as a result of advanced access to inspection information. In March 2019, David Middendorf and Jeffrey Wada, co-defendants in the scandal, were convicted. The UK accounting regulator, Financial Regulation Council (FRC), has opened an investigation into KPMG's audit of

1176-504: The government as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. This scandal led KPMG to resign as auditor for Herbalife and Skechers. KPMG was accused by the Canada Revenue Agency of abetting tax evasion schemes: "The CRA alleges that the KPMG tax structure was in reality a 'sham' that intended to deceive the taxman." The Canada Revenue Agency offered an amnesty to KPMG clients caught using an offshore tax-avoidance scheme on

1218-579: The past decade, various parts of the firm's global network of affiliates have been involved in regulatory actions as well as lawsuits. In 1816, Robert Fletcher started working as an accountant and in 1839 the firm he worked for changed its name to Robert Fletcher & Co. William Barclay Peat joined the firm in 1870 at 17 and became head of the firm in 1891, renamed William Barclay Peat & Co. by then. In 1877, Thomson McLintock founded Thomson McLintock & Co in Glasgow. In 1897, Marwick Mitchell & Co.

1260-416: The permanent role. In November 2021, KPMG UK was reported as having revised its partnership process to introduce five levels of partnership which required partners to inject capital at levels starting at £150,000 and going up to £500,000. This along with the £115 million proceeds from the sale of its pensions business earlier in 2021, which it seems was not distributed to the partners, was intended to prepare

1302-451: The single statewide library card grants access to the hundreds of branches associated with the service. PINES also manages the booking of rooms, the use of remote self-check machines, allows automated search and retrieval, as well as supports RSS and Schema.org standards. PINES developed the open-source software Evergreen , an integrated library system which it and other library consortia use to manage their online catalogs. In 1998

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1344-567: The so-called Luxembourg Leaks . KPMG was the preferred employer among the Big Four accounting firms according to CollegeGrad.com. It was also ranked No. 4 on the list of "50 Best Places to Launch a Career" in 2009 according to Bloomberg Businessweek . It was reported in early 2012 that KPMG has about 11,000 staff in the UK and 9,000 in mainland China and Hong Kong. KPMG's global deputy chairman predicted that headcount in China would overtake that of

1386-618: Was added to the regional library changing its name to the lengthy Fannin-Towns-Union Regional Library. In the following year, 1958, this name was shortened to the current Mountain Regional Library System. The Fannin branch built their new facility in the library system in 1973 in Blue Ridge . In 2010 the Union County Public Library in Blairsville renovated its building, adding a genealogy room, community room, and used book store. It

1428-592: Was also believed that by establishing a state-wide library cost to individual library systems would be lowered as they wouldn't need to maintain their own integrated library systems, and certain tasks could be centralized through the state saving additional time. By 1999 PINES became a reality, administered by the current Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS). It initially was used as a Y2K state-funded project to address needs of public libraries without Y2K-compliant ILS computer services. These libraries, mostly rural, were deemed not to have programs that would survive into

1470-480: Was finished and ready for deployment. In that same month Phase 1 of PINES went live with 98 affiliated libraries. For the next two years other libraries saw the success of PINES, and rather than replace their outdated ILS with a new independent one, requested to join the statewide system. In 2001 Phase 2 of PINES went live with an addition 111 libraries joining the service. In 2004 the GPLS decided not to renew their contract with KPMG/Sirsi after being advised that under

1512-584: Was formed by the merger of Main & Co and FW LaFrentz & Co. In 1969, Thomson McLintock and Main LaFrentz merged forming McLintock Main LaFrentz International and McLintock Main LaFrentz International absorbed the general practice of Grace, Ryland & Co. In 1979, Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. (Netherlands), McLintock Main LaFrentz (United Kingdom / United States), and Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (Germany) formed KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) as

1554-855: Was founded by James Marwick and Roger Mitchell in New York City . In 1899, Ferdinand William LaFrentz founded the American Audit Co. in New York. In 1923, The American Audit Company was renamed FW LaFrentz & Co. In about 1913, Frank Wilber Main founded Main & Co. in Pittsburgh . In March 1917, Piet Klijnveld and Jaap Kraayenhof opened an accounting firm called Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. in Amsterdam. In 1925, William Barclay Peat & Co. and Marwick Mitchell & Co., merged to form Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. In 1963, Main LaFrentz & Co

1596-400: Was incorporated in London, England. In February 2021, KPMG UK appointed its first female leaders, replacing Bill Michael, who stepped aside after making controversial comments. Bina Mehta was asked to step in as acting UK chairman and Mary O'Connor took over Michael's executive responsibilities as acting senior partner in UK. In April 2021, O'Connor quit the firm after being passed over for

1638-626: Was investigated for ignoring questionable payments in the Siemens bribery case. In November 2008, the Siemens Supervisory Board recommended changing auditors from KPMG to Ernst & Young. In February, KPMG Mauritius was sued by a group of South African pensioners who lost millions when investing in Leaderguard Spot Forex (LSF), a foreign exchange investment scheme backed by KPMG and Denmark-based Saxo Bank . The suit against KPMG

1680-431: Was just for the portion lost during their involvement. In March, KPMG was accused of enabling "improper and imprudent practices" at New Century Financial , a failed mortgage company, and KPMG agreed to pay $ 80 million to settle suits from Xerox shareholders over manipulated earnings reports. In December, it was announced that two of Tremont Group 's Rye Select funds, audited by KPMG, had $ 2.37 billion invested with

1722-466: Was later abandoned. In 2001, KPMG spun off its United States consulting firm through an initial public offering of KPMG Consulting, which was rebranded BearingPoint . In early 2009, BearingPoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The UK and Dutch consulting arms were sold to Atos in 2002. In 2003, KPMG divested itself of its legal arm, Klegal and KPMG sold its Dispute Advisory Services to FTI Consulting . KPMG's member firms in

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1764-680: Was taken offline, and by September 5 Evergreen was up and running. Due to the success of Evergreen it was awarded the Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration in 2007 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation . Since its initial release, Evergreen is now used in over 1,800 libraries around the world, including the highest-circulating library in the United States, the King County Library System . There are several library systems in Georgia outside of

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