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The firm confirmed it will cease political donations starting in FY24 and divulged details of several internal misconduct inquiries.
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PwC to reveal timeline of activities in response to breach
14 July 2023
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PwC has confirmed it will reveal a timeline of actions in response to the confidential tax breach along with several other misconduct investigations and measures undertaken by the firm.
In response to questions by the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee, the maligned firm said it will provide a timeline of its activities to the Senate Questions on Notice on 21 July.
“As previously outlined in public statements, our detailed investigations into the Tax Practitioners Board matter occurred over the last eight weeks,” said PwC.
“We have publicly apologised and regret that we did not do more sooner.”
“We will provide a detailed timeline of our activities in that regard in our response to the Senate Questions on Notice due 21 July 2023.”
As part of its response, PwC also confirmed that it has commissioned an update of the tax governance review it undertook in 2021, with the investigation to look at the design effectiveness of its tax governance and internal control framework. This will commence in August 2023.
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It said the updated review will be undertaken by Bruce Quigley, a member of the panel of expert advisors at the International Monetary Fund and previously a senior advisor at the Tax Institute and second commissioner at the ATO.
In response to a question regarding disciplinary actions relating to conflicts of interest and the misuse of government information, PwC said the investigation carried out with the TPB led to the exit of 12 partners from the firm for sharing confidential partner information.
However, it declared the remaining partners named in the 2 June Senate submission were not responsible for leaking confidential information.
“Of the partners and staff who were named in the 2 June Senate submission, the vast majority, including all of those who are still working at the firm, have not been found to have disseminated confidential government information,” PwC said.
The firm also responded to the Senate Committee’s misconduct inquiries as PwC confirmed 43 matters were related to one or more partners within the last four years.
PwC also revealed there had been 42 formal complaints made of bullying in the past five years, 101 formal complaints of sexual harassment and 14 formal complaints of discrimination, but only two matters were heard by external bodies, with one determined by the federal circuit court and one settled before determination.
The firm also disclosed that of the 119 separation arrangements, it had undergone two due to incidents of sexual harassment – six related to bullying and five being incidents of discrimination with the rest due to performance issues.
PwC said the amount of the 119 arrangement payments ranged from $3,286.71 to $331,282.
The Senate Committee also questioned PwC’s political donations for the most recent financial year, which it revealed to be approximately $353,949.
PwC said $236,347 of the donations went to memberships and sponsorship of related associations and conferences, while the remaining $117,601 were direct donations.
However, from the 2024 financial year onwards, PwC said it will cease any political donations.
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