Peter Collins,former international tax leader for PwC Australia.
The communications between PwC Australia and PwC Global extends from October 2014 to January 2017. In May 2016,so excited was PwC by the prospect of capturing the multinational tax avoidance market with the insider intel,it held a conference call for global tax partners.
Collins knew what he was doing. It breached the ethical and professional boundary he should have known and observed in spirit and practice. He was banned from practising for two years. But he was not alone and the emails he sent and received implicate many of his PwC colleagues.
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All this occurred during the leadership in Australia of Luke Sayers,PwC’s then-CEO. He has questions to answer about the behaviour that took place on his watch. Tom Seymour,PwC’s head of tax at the time and later CEO of PwC Australia,has already stepped down. We’re told by PwC that he will retire in September,about the same time as the PwC internal review is expected to land. But what about all the others?
The Australian people deserve better from one of Australia’s biggest assurance companies. It’s time for PwC to face the music and to name the names of all involved. No delaying;no mucking around;no hiding any longer. Name the names. As the PwC saga continues,I think it’s time to call out the behaviour of a leadership team now in damage-control mode.
Deborah O’Neill is a Labor senator for NSW and chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
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