Accounting firm vows to ‘do everything’ to regain trust after leaking government information to clients.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Australia has ordered nine partners to withdraw pending the outcome of an internal investigation amid a scandal over the leak of confidential information about the government’s tax plans.
PwC said on Monday that the chairmen of the company’s board of directors and risk committee would also resign and that it had begun a process to “shield” services to government agencies.
PwC also said it would nominate two independent directors to its board and fully publish the results of a study into the company’s culture announced earlier this month.
“We are announcing these actions today, despite our investigation continuing, as we recognize that our stakeholders want greater transparency to restore trust in our business,” said Kristin Stubbins, acting CEO of PwC Australia, in a statement.
PwC, one of the “big four” global accounting firms, has been embroiled in controversy since it emerged that a partner of the firm used confidential information about the government’s planned tax reforms to do business with multinational clients and help clients pay less tax. .
PwC CEO Tom Seymour resigned earlier this month following the revelations first reported by Australia’s Financial Review newspaper.
Australian police said last week they had opened a criminal investigation into PwC and its former partner Peter Collins for “alleged misuse of confidential government information”.
In its statement on Monday, Stubbins said PwC was determined to “do whatever it takes to right the wrongs of our past and earn again.” [the public’s] to trust”.
But Stubbins rejected calls for the company to release the names of all employees who had access to emails related to the leaked information and insisted no confidential information was used to allow customers to pay less tax.
“There has been an assumption by some that all those whose names have been redacted must necessarily be involved in wrongdoing,” Stubbins said.
“That is incorrect. Based on our ongoing investigation, we believe that the vast majority of recipients of these emails are neither responsible for nor knowingly involved in any breach of confidentiality.”