Bureaucratic hurdles ensure that the vast majority of government contracts go to PwC and the other large accounting firms.
PwC Australia provided the global search engine confidential information about the start date of a new tax avoidance law leaked from government briefings,according to two sources familiar with the matter.
PwC Australia’s government business will become a new company called Scyne Advisory,having been offloaded to private equity firm Allegro Funds in a $1 fire sale.
Consultants are now deployed at enormous expense to help universities corporatise their operations. Young students have never paid so much for so little.
Housed inside PwC,the government consulting division has a very bleak future.
UNSW spent $38 million on consultants in 2022,while the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland each paid out more than $37 million.
The PwC tax scandal has been six years in the making and now the company needs to appease its external critics and save its pipeline of work in Australia.
Independence of the public service is essential and needs to be restored as the government reduces its reliance on private consultants.
Embattled PwC is attempting to rehabilitate its image without firing any of the executives involved in the tax avoidance scandal,but questions about its integrity are not going away.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the federal government is considering further action against PwC and former partners over a leak of confidential government tax plans. But he has declined to clarify whether criminal charges are being considered.
Spending on consultancies has rocketed since Labor came to power,raising questions about a government promise to pare back spending on advice,research and analysis.