Accounting and consultancy firm PWC has directed nine of its directors to go on leave, after the firm came was found to have leaked confidential Australian Government tax information. Source: Bjørn Erik Pedersen/Wikimedia
Accounting and consultancy firm PWC has asked nine of its partners to take leave, after the firm came under fire for leaking confidential Australian Government tax information regarding large multinational corporations.
The nine partners were directed to take leave while PWC completes an internal investigation regarding the leaked tax information.
The firm also announced that the chairs of its governance board and designated risk committee will be stepping down and two independent non-executive directors will be appointed to its governance board.
From September, a standalone executive and governance board will oversee PWC’s operations regarding the provision of services to the Australian government, and the firm will publish its full internal report conducted by Ziggy Switkowski after its completion in September.
There have been calls, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to release the names of the individuals privy to the emails containing the leaked tax information.
PWC’s acting chief executive Kristen Stubbins has resisted these calls.
“There has been an assumption by some that all those whose names have been redacted must necessarily be involved in wrongdoing. That is incorrect,” said Stubbins in an open letter to the public.
“Based on our ongoing investigation, we believe that the vast majority of the recipients of these emails are neither responsible for, nor were knowingly involved in any confidentiality breach.
“We have and will continue to take appropriate action against anyone who is found to have breached confidentiality or failed in their leadership duties.”
Stubbins also made sure to reiterate that none of PWC’s multinational corporate clients had known about the confidential information breach.
“Our clients were not involved in any wrongdoing and no confidential information was used to enable clients to pay less tax,” stated Stubbins.
However, in the letter Stubbins concedes that the firm had aggressive marketing behaviour and that contributed to allowing “profit to be placed over purpose,” and that PWC’s “governance process failed to identify and keep this in check.”
Stubbins has reiterated PWC’s apology for the breach, which allowed the firm to market tax strategies to multinational clients that would minimise the impact the Abbott Coalition government’s tax changes regarding their Australian revenue.
“I want to apologise on behalf of PwC Australia. For sharing confidential government tax policy information and for betraying the trust placed in us,” said Stubbins.
“Specifically, I apologise to the community; to the Australian government for breaching your confidentiality; to our clients for any questions this may have raised about our integrity and trustworthiness; and to the 10,000 hard-working, values-driven PwC Australia partners and staff who have been unfairly impacted.”
