Australian Government Takes Action Against PwC for Tax Leaks Scandal
The Australian Government has taken action against PwC for its involvement in the tax leaks scandal. The Department of Finance has proposed new rules that would allow it to remove a supplier from the panel and cancel all existing and future contracts, including in respect of behaviour that is outside the specific scope of the services delivered under the panel. This move comes after Treasury referred the scandal to the Australian Federal Police to consider opening a criminal investigation.
New Rules for Suppliers
Last week, Finance introduced rules that require suppliers to notify federal public servants if their personnel are pinged for bad behaviour. The move follows the termination of the registration of former PwC partner Peter Collins by the Tax Practitioners Board in January. Collins was found to have shared secret information with other staff at PwC and ordered the firm to train its employees about conflicts of interest. Internal firm emails published by a Senate committee in May revealed how PwC partners and staff received emails relating to a plan to exploit, for profit, information Collins had gleaned while advising the government on creating the multinational tax avoidance laws.
Government Response
Secretary of the Department of Finance, Jenny Wilkinson, called Collins’ behaviour “egregious” and said the behaviour highlighted by the email cache was “deeply concerning”. She added that Treasury and Finance had been co-ordinating advice on how to deal with PwC from a whole-of-government perspective and deterring such conduct in the future. Treasury is also undertaking a range of measures to prevent a similar breach occurring again. Wilkinson said that even though the leaks did not happen under a procurement contract, the scandal had provided an opportunity to “bolster the integrity requirements of the Commonwealth Procurement Framework.”
Conclusion
The Australian Government has taken strong action against PwC for its involvement in the tax leaks scandal. The proposed new rules by the Department of Finance will allow it to remove a supplier from the panel and cancel all existing and future contracts. The move comes after Treasury referred the scandal to the Australian Federal Police to consider opening a criminal investigation. The government has also introduced new rules for suppliers to notify federal public servants if their personnel are pinged for bad behaviour. The scandal has provided an opportunity to bolster the integrity requirements of the Commonwealth Procurement Framework.
Source: afr.com
