PwC’s breach of trust against the Federal Government has cast a dark show over the entire consultancy sector. Photo: David Murtagh.
Pressure is on the Federal Government to change current rules and protocols to ensure consulting firms found to have been involved in corrupt and unethical practices get no further public service contracts.
In the latest fallout from PwC’s breach of trust in sharing confidential Treasury information with its multinational clients to help them avoid paying Australian taxes, the Greens are insisting Labor stands up to the big firms.
The Greens want the government to support a new system that would require it to block dodgy consultancy firms from future work for the Australian Public Service.
The party also wants a debarment regime introduced, which would establish grounds and processes for the government to improve business practices and, in the cases of wrongdoing, prevent consultants, contractors and suppliers from working with the government.
The Greens have introduced a bill seeking to establish the new regime.
Greens finance spokesperson Barbara Pocock has written to Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher asking her to support the proposal.
“The current inability of the Commonwealth to ban a contractor for unethical conduct, as was evident with the PwC tax leak scandal, is of great concern and must be addressed,” Senator Pocock wrote.
“Many stakeholders have said it’s time for a debarment regime, including the OECD, the Australian Law Reform Commission, the CPSU, the Tax Justice Network and even a previous Senate inquiry into foreign bribery.
“Senator, I’m urging you, as Finance Minister, to support the Greens’ bill to ban unethical contractors from doing business with the public purse.
“We want to close the legal loophole that allows shady operators who behave unethically to get away with it.”
Greens Senator Barbara Pocock has written to Finance Minister Katy Gallagher urging her to support a debarment regime. Photo: Screenshot.
Senator Pocock pointed to other jurisdictions, including Western Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, that have recently adopted a debarment regime.
“We need to catch up to best practice and implement a government-wide exclusion framework, rather than continue to have an ad hoc response,” she said.
Senator Gallagher’s office has confirmed a response is being prepared.
During recent debate in the Senate, Ms Gallagher said procurement decisions were not something the government intervened with or had the power to override.
Last month, the Federal Government gave PwC the green light to restart its bidding for federal contracts.
This came despite the national outrage over PwC’s attack on Australian taxpayers and following two parliamentary inquiries into the leaks casting a dark cloud over the entire consulting sector.
The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has recently imposed further penalties over the PwC breach and banned the firm’s former chief executive officer Thomas Seymour from being a tax agent for four years.
“Our investigation into Thomas Seymour uncovered a business culture of sharing of confidential information, often referred to as ‘intelligence’, within PwC that was widespread within the Tax and Legal Services division,” TPB chair Peter de Cure said when announcing the ban.
“Despite frequent reminders in internal emails that this information was ‘confidential’ and should not be further disclosed, the practice persisted.
“This points to a deeply embedded culture within PwC that routinely disregarded formal confidentiality obligations.”
Mr Seymour’s ban follows the 2023 deregistering for two years of former PwC partner Peter-John Collins for his role in the initial breach of trust.
Senator Pocock said while the Greens welcomed the TPB’s decision, removing one more bad apple didn’t change the organisational culture that enabled the tax scandal.
“The PwC tax scandal was one of the most shocking breaches of public trust in recent memory,” she said.
“The firm is currently under investigation by the AFP, the Tax Practitioners Board and has been referred to the NACC.
“They have proven themselves to be untrustworthy, conducting their own internal investigations and continuously refusing to cooperate with government inquiries.”
She said PwC was never fully banned from getting government work.
“They still had contracts with government agencies worth at least $11 million throughout the ‘mutual agreement’ period, which lasted just 16 months.
“This has exposed Australia’s lack of a government-wide exclusion framework as a huge issue.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
