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Counsel for the 3rd Respondents, National Democratic Congress (NDC), Tsatsu Tsikata on Tuesday roped in accounting and auditing firm, KPMG directly into the controversy surrounding the auditing of pink sheet exhibits submitted by the petitioners in the Presidential Election petition hearings, when he cited and made inferences from supposed discussions Counsels for the respondents had had with the auditing firm and its representatives. Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata with the support of Counsel for John Mahama, Tony Lithur and Counsel for the Electoral Commission (EC), Quarshie-Idun, was making an oral application to the Court for a varying of the Court's order on the auditing of the pink sheet exhibits. The application according to the respondents was being made because of a supposed discovery of seven new boxes of pink sheets at the Court registry which meant that the registry's copies of pink sheets had been compromised. In making his arguments however, Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata made references to various discussions he and the Counsel Tony Lithur had had with officials of KPMG which according to them supported their case for a review of the order. He stated for example that officials of KPMG had confirmed to him that there were three duplicate boxes which had the same sheets as other boxes. Counsel Tony Lithur also in rebuffing Counsel Philip Addison's point that they had gatecrashed the counting venue stated that though they were initially allowed into the venue by the referees, they later were told to go outside where they had various discussions with officials of KPMG after which the officials went in again to continue counting. Another mention of the audit firm came when Counsel Tsatsu Tsikata stated that he had been informed by officials of KPMG that they had counted the boxes of pink sheets in the custody of the Presiding Judge and said that the officials of KPMG would subsequently advice the President of the court appropriately. These mentions of KPMG led Counsel Philip Addison, lead counsel of the petitioners to ask if maybe the respondents were holding private meetings with KPMG and other officials involved in the counting process as the petitioners were not aware of the discussions the Counsels for the NDC and John Mahama were quoting. Indeed on Monday, Lawyer Abraham Amaliba, a member of the NDC's Legal Team, said on various radio platforms that an inventory of the pink sheet boxes taken last Thursday showed the pink sheet boxes to be 24, but that this 24 had increased to 31 by Monday when counting was underway; an assertion which was reiterated by Tsatsu Tsikata. But a senior partner at KPMG, Mr. Joe Winful has denied any knowledge of an inventory taken of the boxes of pink sheets at the Court registry as stated by the respondents. Mr Winful, speaking on Adom TVs Badwam, was emphatic that no staff of the company has been involved in any inventory taken by the parties involved in the ongoing petition at the Supreme Court. According to him, KPMG has no knowledge of any inventory done, and would have publicly announced any anomalies if any had been detected at the inventory stage.