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CA ANZ has refuted claims made by the TPB to a Parliamentary joint committee on Thursday that the latter had informed CA ANZ of sanctions laid against former PwC partner, Peter John Collins.
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CA ANZ refutes TPB's claims on Collins correspondence
04 March 2024
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***UPDATED**** TPB has since told Accountants Daily the information it provided to the joint committee was incorrect. Instead of informing CA ANZ of the TPB's sanctions against Peter Collins, it had notified the Tax Institute.
TPB chief executive Michael O'Neill said the timeline presented by CA ANZ chair Ainslie van Onselen in a letter to the joint committees was in “some stark contrast” with their version of events.
Van Onselen’s letter claimed CA ANZ was only made aware of the TPB’s findings against Collins when they were announced publicly on 23 January, 2023.
The TPB initiated an investigation against Collins’ in January of 2021 and then PwC in March of 2021, said O’Neill. It then issued a board sanction against PwC on 25 November 2022.
“We would have gone to CA ANZ at the time of the board sanction,” said O’Neill, who added that he was unsure of the precise date.
“We would have written to them and explicitly told them we’ve looked at Mr Collins, we’ve made a decision, these are the reasons for our decision,” added O’Neill.
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In a statement issued on Friday, CA ANZ said it had “no records of any direct communication from the TPB informing the body about the finding and order” against Collins “other than what was made available publicly on 23 January.”
CA ANZ added it is “conducting an extensive search of all communications channels with the TPB” following O’Neill’s appearance at the hearing.
Beyond raising issues with the information-sharing procedures between the two bodies, the timeline is important as it bears upon the extent of the failure that led to CA ANZ wrongfully allowing Collins to resign as a member of the professional association.
Subject to CA ANZ by-laws which its members have since voted to amend, the professional association is prevented from launching an investigation into Collins’ behaviour since he is no longer a member of the association.
Had CA ANZ been made explicitly aware of the disciplinary actions taken by TPB against Mr Collins it would have ‘flagged’ his membership, preventing him from resigning and thereby allowing CA ANZ to launch an investigation.
CA ANZ accepted Collins’ resignation on 1 December 2022. This was before the date on which TPB announced its findings against Collins, which is when CA ANZ claims to have first learned of the findings.
This is a separate issue from the internal failure at CA ANZ to make note of Collins’ disclosure of the findings against him which he included in an email sent to CA ANZ on 16 November, 2022.
The disclosure of the TPB’s findings against him was embedded in an email announcing his intentions to resign from CA ANZ, with the accounting body failing to make note of the disclosure.
“It is apparent that the person who received the letter did not consider the content of his resignation letter. This human error is completely contrary to the correct procedure,” wrote van Onselen.
By failing to make note of Collins’ disclosure, his membership was not flagged by CA ANZ and this meant his resignation was ultimately accepted by the body.
By disclosing the TPB’s findings against him via email, Collins failed to make use of the proper channels dedicated to processing such disclosures. Nonetheless, van Onselen accepted the resignation was “erroneously” accepted.
CA ANZ has initiated a full review of its internal processes regarding its member resignations as well as a specific review of resignations processed at that time. It added that it has put a ‘stop resignation’ order on all PwC Australia partners.
The TPB has not responded to Accountants Daily’s requests for further information.
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