Business Council calls for register to name and shame consulting sector over scandals
The peak body for the business sector in Australia has weighed in on scandals surrounding the consulting sector in its submission to a parliamentary inquiry.
The Business Council of Australia has called on the Albanese government to set up a central register for consulting sector misbehaviour, as well as outlining potential punishments for firms caught acting out, as part of its submissions to a Senate inquiry.
Weighing in on the scandal surrounding the consulting sector, sparked by revelations PwC Australia misused confidential government documents, the BCA said the consulting sector should face a name and shame register to improve transparency of the industry.
In its submission to the Senate’s Finance and Public Administration committee, the BCA calls on the Department of Finance to set clear and consistent definitions of breaches, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and ethical standards.
These definitions would be determined “independently after consultation with the procuring and contracting entities” under the scheme outlined by the BCA.
The lobby group, one of Australia’s peak bodies for business in Australia, said a central database for breaches would help “promptly identify breaches for new/existing tenders”.
“Notification could be achieved through a mix of requiring government entities to consult the register before considering tenders, and notifying government entities of material breaches as they occur,” the submission notes.
It comes after Finance created new rules in May last year requiring suppliers to the public service to notify departments if their staff were caught up in a “significant event” also ordering PwC to stand down staff working on government contracts if they had been linked to the tax leaks.
Public servants are then required to consider those suppliers “performance history when assessing value for money”.
PwC has since sold its public service consulting business to Allegro Funds in a $1 deal, with the operation since rebranded Scyne Advisory.
But KPMG, Deloitte, EY Oceania, and Accenture remain working directly with state and federal governments.
The BCA says Finance should launch a review of all confidentiality agreements and conflicts of interest in contracts, which should consider reporting and management of issues and disclosure as well as setting safeguards for managing conflicts among suppliers.
This would also see the government set “clear and consistent definition of what constitutes a conflict of interest” as well as requiring large entities to “undertake independent reviews of conflicts of interest policies, systems and processes”.
However, the BCA warns these measures “should not act as a barrier to small businesses in engaging in government procurement contracts”.
The BCA also calls on Finance to set up a supplier code of conduct, outlining expectations and setting out penalties for breaches.
The Senate committee investigating the Tax Scandal will hear from the BCA, Finance, and Deloitte, on Friday.
Accenture, EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC are all members of the BCA.
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