PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia staff who are found to have acted improperly in a scandal over the leaking of government tax plans would face “severe” consequences, PwC Australia acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins told a state parliament inquiry yesterday.
In her first public appearance since her predecessor resigned over his involvement in the scandal, Stubbins said an investigation by two law firms would conclude “shortly” and the firm would name any employees found to have “done anything wrong.”
“We have failed the standards we set for ourselves as an organization, and I apologize on behalf of our firm,” Stubbins said.
PwC Australia is under fire after a former partner who was advising the federal government on laws to prevent corporate tax avoidance shared confidential information with colleagues who then used it to pitch to multinational companies for work.
The firm has already placed nine partners on leave and named four former partners directly involved in the breach who have since left the firm. Two of those four have publicly denied any wrongdoing.
Stubbins faced a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry a day after the firm announced plans to sell its government consulting business for A$1 (US$0.67) and a further leadership shakeup as it responds to a scandal that has led government agencies and pension funds to freeze work with PwC.
PwC’s initial decision last month to ring fence its government consulting practice and set up a separate board “didn’t go far enough,” Stubbins said.
PwC Australia would receive no financial benefit from the A$1 sale, she added.
About 1,500 staff and more than 100 partners would go across to the new entity, which would be set up as a corporation with the help of private equity firm Allegro Funds and launched in about September.
The move would cut PwC Australia off from the “vast majority” of public-sector consulting work, although some external audit work for government clients might stay, Stubbins said.
Stubbins took over from former PwC Australia chief executive David Seymour last month after he admitted he was one of at least 67 staff who received e-mails containing confidential government plans to curb multinational tax avoidance leaked by a former partner at the firm between 2014 and 2017.
She is to remain in the role until Kevin Burrowes, currently global clients and industries lead based in Singapore, relocates to Australia for the job.
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