Accounting firm PwC has refused to provide a parliamentary committee with a copy of the regulations of the PwC global network under which the firm defaulted.
A response from PwC Australia to questions asked by Senator Deborah O’Neill, the chair of the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services, revealed that the firm has no intention of sharing the agreements or regulations by which its international network is run.
O’Neill’s request follows a series of revelations in The Mandarin that PwC Australia had a partner who is a director of PwC International Limited, a private company incorporated in the UK, and that the firm is bound by a memorandum of association that requires it to comply with regulations set by the firm network.
The memorandum of association for PwC’s global network is publicly available but only excerpts of relevant regulations have been revealed through reporting in the Australian Financial Review.
O’Neill requested a copy of a formal agreement between PwC Australia and PwC International Limited as well as copies of “all agreements and documents which outline the formal relationship between PwC Australia and PwC International relating to financial matters, governance matters, or remediation/redress of brand damage”.
PwC was not in a giving mood.
“The contractual arrangements between PwC International and PwC Australia are commercial in confidence,” the firm’s response says.
Further questions from O’Neill requested a copy of the June 2023 supervised remediation letter from PwC International Limited to PwC Australia that appointed current chief executive officer Kevin Burrowes as a replacement for then-acting CEO, former PwC partner Kristin Stubbins.
The firm was not letting that letter or any other correspondence related to remediation into the hands of the Senate.
“PwC’s internal arrangements are confidential and commercially sensitive. However, PwC Australia can confirm that it has been taking remedial actions under the supervision of the PwC Network,” the firm’s response says.
“PwC Australia will continue to work closely with our colleagues across the PwC Network as we continue to rebuild trust with our stakeholders and implement our Commitments to Change.”
News of PwC Australia’s continuing refusal to help shed further light on the structure under which it is currently operating follows Burrowes’ recently expressed wish that people would move on from the tax scandal that has dominated headlines and paralysed the firm for the past year.
It also follows the recent refusal by PwC International to provide the Senate with the advice or reports produced by the global law firm, Linklaters, on the extent to which confidential material from the Australian government might have been used by the global network.
Senator Richard Colbeck, the chair of the Senate committee looking at government procurement, recently told The Mandarin that Burrowes and PwC Australia might want to move on but there were still questions the firm needed to answer.
Colbeck said that the firm could take a hint from his committee’s first report and provide requested documentation so the Australian community through the Senate better understand what happened when Australian policy information bounced around its international network.
“Of course, it is always open to him to take the very genuine advice of the Senate Committee in its first report, which was to do the right thing and come completely clean with the Australian community,” Colbeck said.
“The completely tone-deaf response to that report is perhaps an indicator of some of the things that need to change at PwC.”
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