Grilled mandarin: Treasury boss coy on action against scandal-plagued PwC
Treasury secretary Dr Steven Kennedy has declined to comment on action being taken against global consultant PwC for fear of prejudicing a police investigation.
Kennedy made a brief statement to a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday, following Treasuryās referral of former PwC partner Peter Collins to the Australian Federal Police last week.
The referral came after the Tax Practitioners Board investigated Collins and found he had failed to act with integrity ā under his professional, ethical and legal obligations ā and terminated his tax agent registration for two years.
The board alsoĀ ordered PwC to take steps to ensure it managed conflicts of interest appropriately.
The findings were published in January.
In May, emails were tabled in parliament highlighting what Kennedy described as āthe significant extent of the unauthorised disclosure of confidential Commonwealth information and the wide range of individuals within PwC who were directly and indirectly privy to the confidential informationā.
āIn light of these recent revelations and the seriousness of this misconduct, Treasury referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police to consider commencement of a criminal investigation,ā he told the hearing.
You might like
āTreasury is not able to comment further on the AFP referral or on the specifics of any other potential action so as to not prejudice those options.
āEvidence that we give today will be careful to avoid prejudicing any police investigation.ā
On Monday, PwC announced it was standing down nine partners, including members of its executive and governance boards.
Acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins said members of the company who shared Treasuryās plans had betrayed āthe trust placed in usā.
āWe understand that we betrayed the trust of our stakeholders and we apologise unreservedly,ā she said.
āWe know that action is critical to restore confidence in our firm and rebuild trust with our stakeholders, and I am committed to taking all necessary steps to make this happen.ā
Stay informed, daily
The Greens are seeking to release the names of PwC employees via a Senate committee.
But the committee is seeking advice from the Senate clerk about whether revealing the list could disrupt criminal investigations.
Greens senatorĀ Barbara Pocock, who tried to table the list of names, said steps taken by PwC were ātoo little, too lateā.
āWe know this is a company with tentacles across business and certainly into government, so we need to know much more about the wider group of people whoāve been engaged in this terrible chapter,ā she told the ABC.
āPwC continues to conceal and fail to really come clean.
āWe need transparency and honesty and a proper clean-up.ā
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the list of employees allegedly involved in the tax advice scandal should be made public.
āAll of this should become public at the appropriate time, of course,ā he said.
āQuite clearly, what went on there is completely unacceptable.ā
An independent report into the scandal, headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski, will be released in September.
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.
