Accounting firm PwC Australia has still a lot of work to do before it can move on from the tax leaks scandal, according to two members of a Senate committee looking into government procurement.
Senators Richard Colbeck, the chair of the Senate’s financial and public administration committee, and Barbara Pocock told The Mandarin that PwC cannot move on until a range of matters are concluded, such as the nine cases linked to the tax leaks saga being looked at by the Tax Practitioners Board and the Project Alesia investigation by the AFP.
Their remarks come after PwC chief executive officer Kevin Burrowes told The Australian Financial Review last week that he wanted to move on from the tax leaks saga.
Burrowes’ first major media outing coincided with the firm announcing a new strategic plan to recast the firm’s focus on audit, tax and deals, risk and transformation, and cloud and digital.
The firm has prioritised new market areas including artificial intelligence, climate and business model reinvention.
There is even a key market area called ‘trust in what matters’.
Colbeck said there were clearly many good people at PwC Australia who would like to see this move on but there are still a range of outstanding matters that will keep the firm centre stage.
“I suspect Mr Burrowes more than ‘wants’ to move on, he is more likely desperate to move on. He is however like someone trying to push water uphill with a rake on that front,” Colbeck said.
“He still has to deal with the nine investigations underway via the TPB and Project Alesia via the AFP.”
Colbeck and his committee colleagues remain concerned the firm continues to not provide further insight into how Australian policy information bounced its way around the firm network.
A report from law firm Linklaters has assumed legendary status because the firm has continued to refuse to release more details about the global legal investigation.
“The matter of the Linklaters report remains an open wound, and that wound is being salted by the more recent evidence coming from the TPB that 22 individuals in six countries were involved in using the information against international tax reform,” Colbeck said.
“It is worth noting that the ATO is discussing similar issues with the ‘large business five“ plus two other nations.
“The international elements of this matter remain unresolved, and remain of interest to the Senate and clearly other parties.”
Colbeck said the firm could take the advice from the committee’s first report on the PwC saga and “come clean” on outstanding questions.
“The completely tone-deaf response to that report is perhaps an indicator of some of the things that need to change at PwC,” Colbeck said.
Pocock said there was a lot more to deal with before people including Burrowes could move on from the PwC tax scandal.
“It comes as no surprise that PwC would like the consequences of their actions swept under the rug, when those consequences are still the subject of a Senate inquiry, a NACC referral, multiple investigations by the AFP, TPB and CAANZ. At the same time there remains a huge question mark over the missing Linklaters report,” Pocock said.
“The Big Four are keen for the caravan to move on and return to business as usual, but this is one instance where time does not heal.
‘PwC’s behaviour and actions have been legally and morally reprehensible and still need to be dealt with, even if it does make the CEO uncomfortable.”
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