PwC reveals six staff sacked for data breaches as bad behaviour list unveiled

The embattled audit and consulting giant is still investigating 33 allegations of serious misconduct.

PwC CEO Kevin Burrowes walking to his office from Crown Towers Sydney. Picture: Liam Mendes

PwC Australia found six serious incidents of breaches of data privacy at the audit and consulting firm more than a year after publicly committing to reforms in the wake of a public humiliation over confidentiality breaches.

In its 2024 financial results report, PwC revealed it had sacked or terminated eight staff for serious misconduct during the year, alongside a plummeting performance on the back of a damaging tax scandal.

PwC said it had substantiated 22 serious complaints of misconduct at the firm over fiscal 2024, warning it intended to be Australia’s leading professional services firm “built on the highest ethical and professional standards with integrity at the core of everything we do”.

PwC has faced more than a year of public ire over the firm’s breaches of government confidentiality.

The firm’s tax practice was found to have misused confidential briefing documents to front run new tax laws introduced in 2016, with PwC’s former head of international tax Peter Collins banned by the Tax Practitioners Board.

The firm said it had tabled 38 matters with its People and Ethical Conduct Panel after complaints were made by members of staff about colleagues.

At least 16 incidents of bullying and harassment or other serious misconduct in the workplace was identified by PwC during the year.

While another six other breaches of data privacy were also found.

PwC said the remaining 33 serious misconduct complaints tabled with the firm remain under review.

Of the matters substantiated PwC said it provided written warnings to 14 staff, including smacking some with financial penalties, additional training requirements or counselling them.

However, PwC provided no additional detail on the breaches.

The latest misconduct matters represent a decline from PwC’s findings in 2022-2023, when the firm notched up 43 matters, of which 30 were substantiated.

Greens Senator Barbaro Pocock said the latest data breach disclosure was concerning, noting the firm had spent the better part of a year attempting to convince the industry “they are now good corporate citizens”.

“For me this raises serious issues beyond PwC doing the right thing. Were these breaches disclosed to any authorities outside the firm?,” she said.

“Is PwC satisfied they now have structures in place to prevent such breaches in the future? And how should confidentiality and conflicts of interest be managed across the consulting industry? It all points to the problem that there is no regulation of the consulting sector.”

PwC said it had pushed through a number of ethics changes across the firm in the wake of the tax scandal, including launching a central conduct site and providing additional guidance to the firm’s staff.

The firm also said it had lifted training around cybersecurity and data protection, completing threat and risk assessments across the business.

Senator Pocock said there should be an independent regulator to investigate and enforce industry standards.

“It’s just not good enough to let these gigantic partnerships that turnover billions each year basically mark their own homework,” she said.

“They’re unregulated and if we don’t act now to pull these firms into line then I’m afraid it will be only a matter of time before something like the PwC tax leaks scandal happens all over again.”

PwC also spruiked its “commitments to change”, firm-wide reforms in the wake of the tax scandal revealing it had met 36 of the 47 goals.

However, critics are still circling PwC, warning the firm has failed to disclose details of its response to the tax scandal including the identities of six international partners found to have received confidential Australian government tax information from Mr Collins.

PwC chief executive Kevin Burrowes has been tasked to getting the company back on track after taking control of the firm in June last year.

But a parliamentary committee heard that Mr Burrowes played a role in overseeing a list of partners who would be expelled from the firm or its partnership or retirement program in the wake of the tax scandal alleging they were linked to the confidentiality breaches.

Originally published as PwC reveals six staff sacked for data breaches as bad behaviour list unveiled