Senator Deborah O’Neill says PwC Australia has more questions to answer as eight partners booted
Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill has called on PwC Australia to provide more detail of the tax leaks scandal which has seen eight partners pushed out the door.
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Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill has called on accounting firm PwC Australia to provide more detail of the tax leaks scandal which has seen eight partners, including former chief executive Tom Seymour, pushed out the door.
The Labor senator, who chairs the joint parliamentary committee on corporations and financial services which has been investigating the scandal, said more questions needed to be answered by the firm following Monday’s announcement of the forced exits, which also included former chairman Peter Van Dongen.
This follows four partners who were previously named as being involved in the confidentiality leaks, following PwC’s work with the Australian Taxation Office on legislation to crack down on multinational tax avoidance.
Senator O’Neill said PwC also needed to detail what action it was taking to hold the PwC Australia leadership team to account – including former chief executive Luke Sayers, who now runs his own consulting firm based in Melbourne, and the legal counsel from 2015, when the alleged leaks of confidential material from PwC’s dealings with the tax office occurred.
Senator O’Neill said the announcement that eight partners were being removed from the firm, in addition to the earlier four, marked “the beginning of some indication of redress by PwC”.
“But in no way should (it) be perceived as a definitive resolution to this matter,” she said.
She said PwC needed to provide more detail on the internal investigation which had led to their dismissal, details of the misconduct they had allegedly been involved in, and whether any had been referred to bodies such as the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, the Tax Practitioners Board or professional accounting bodies.
The beleaguered firm also faces a potential investigation on another front, with Greens Senator Barbara Pocock referring the matter to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Announcing her move, Senator Pocock, who is a member of the Senate committee on finance and public administration, accused PwC of “drip feeding” information about its investigations and said there needed to be a wide-ranging investigation into PwC’s behaviour by the new commission.
“The PwC tax leaks scandal has been airing in public for the past five months and so far we know too little about who was at fault, who benefited and what consequences there will be,” she said. “While we welcome the Australian Federal Police investigation to prosecute appropriate criminal charges, there are wider issues that need to be addressed to ensure that our systems of government are not open to corruption.”
PwC announced on Monday that another eight partners had left or were being removed from the firm for their direct involvement in the tax leak scandal, their involvement in covering it up, or failing to take action against it.
The consulting firm is in discussions with another partner who is on medical leave. There are indications it believes it has now dealt with most of the partners most closely involved in the tax leak scandal, despite the fact that a much larger number of people at the firm received emails about the “Project North America” plan to promote the firm’s expertise in the new tax legislation.
The move will see Mr Seymour, a PwC veteran of more than 21 years who stood down as chief executive in May, forced to leave the firm earlier than his proposed September retirement date, following his removal from the partnership.
PwC’s acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins said the decision was a result of the firm’s internal investigation. “Based on our investigation to date, it is clear that the conduct of a number of partners fell short of what was expected of them,” she said.
“They are now being held accountable for their misconduct.”
PwC said two partners, the former managing partner in charge of government, health and infrastructure, Peter Konidaris, and tax partner Eddy Moussa, had already left the firm and a third, Richard Gregg, a partner in the firm’s research and development incentive team, was being removed from the partnership because they had “failed to meet their professional responsibilities”.
Mr Seymour, Mr Van Dongen and three others – Pete Calleja, a partner in the firm’s financial advisory business; Sean Gregory, a partner in the firm’s deals and private equity business; and corporate tax partner Wayne Plummer — were being pushed out of the firm for “failure to adequately exercise leadership or governance responsibilities to prevent (the actions of the three partners) or to address deficiencies in the culture at the firm or hold others accountable for their behaviours”.
This compares with 63 partners and staffers that parliament named as receiving the confidential information but not necessarily acting on it.
The Australian understands that the firm has no reason to believe the remaining partners and staff who were named in the Senate submission have disseminated confidential government information.
Mr Seymour, who took over from Luke Sayers as chief executive of PwC Australia in 2020, was head of the firm’s Australian tax practice at the time when the alleged leaking of confidential information about the federal government’s proposed “Google Tax” took place.
Mr Van Dongen was chair of PwC from July 2018 until 2022, when he was replaced by the firm’s first female chair, Tracey Kennair.
Kennair in turn stepped down as chair earlier this year in the wake of the scandal, replaced by the current acting chair Justin Carroll.
The announcement of the sacking of another eight partners comes as the firm is awaiting the arrival of Singapore-based PwC veteran Kevin Burrowes, who will become chief executive.
PwC is in the process of selling off its government advisory arm to private equity firm Allegro.
PwC last week confirmed that 70 partners would leave the firm this year, higher than the 60 who left last year, while another 47 staff were made redundant.
It said these were separate from the investigations into the tax leak scandal, and were made in response to a downturn and redirection of business.
Another 130 partners and some 1750 staff are expected to leave with the closure of PwC’s government consulting practice and the sale of the business to Allegro, which is in the final stages of negotiation.
In Monday’s statement, PwC Australia said its investigation identified a failure of leadership and governance.
“This enabled poor behaviours to persist with no accountability. These behaviours are not, and never have been, acceptable under PwC’s standards,” it said.
Ms Stubbins, the acting chief executive, said that the firm’s current leadership could not “change the past” but could “control our actions today and in the future”.
“Moving forward, the PwC Australia management team will continue to take all appropriate steps to improve the firm’s culture and standards,” she said.
PwC said its investigation to date had been extensive, describing its actions as “an important milestone”, but “further work in some areas remains ongoing.”
Originally published as Senator Deborah O’Neill says PwC Australia has more questions to answer as eight partners booted
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