The Defence Department has reported seven contracts with PwC, worth a total of nearly $6 million, since the firm’s tax scandal broke, Crikey can reveal.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge told Crikey that Parliamentary Library research showed the single contract worth the most money — $4.6 million for “management advisory services” — started on February 1.
That’s just over a week after the Tax Practitioner’s Board (TPB) issued a media release revealing PwC’s former tax partner Peter-John Collins had been deregistered as a tax agent over integrity breaches.
Collins had made “unauthorised disclosures” of information relating to proposed tax laws with colleagues at PwC, according to the TPB. The firm’s acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins has since apologised for “betraying the trust” placed in PwC.
Nine partners at the consultancy business have been placed on leave, and the Australian Federal Police has confirmed it’s investigating a report of “crime relating to the alleged misuse of confidential government information”.
Crikey can reveal the Defence Department entered into the following contracts with PwC after January 23:
- A contract for management advisory services, worth $4,610,000, which began on February 1;
- A contract for management advisory services, worth $25,000, which began on March 8;
- A contract for management advisory services, worth $874,500, which began on March 20;
- A contract for education and training services, worth $10,092, which began on March 20;
- A contract for education and training services, worth $36,640, which began on March 30;
- A contract for management advisory services, worth $142,499, which began on May 8;
- A contract for management advisory services, worth $139,745, which began on May 12.
It’s understood the Parliamentary Library advice doesn’t necessarily make clear what date the contracts were signed. That’s because Commonwealth procurement rules state contracts over a certain threshold must be reported to AusTender within 42 days of being entered into. The seven contracts were the ones published since March 6, 42 days after January 23.
In total, the Defence Department has 54 contracts with PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, worth a total of $223,299,943, the department’s Associate Secretary Matt Yannopoulos told Senate estimates on Tuesday.
“I’m not aware of any that are entered into since May 17,” Yannopoulos said.
One of the 54 contracts is a $8.4 million “data sharing and analytics solution” project, assisting Defence and Veterans’ Affairs in sharing information, which began in July 2021, according to Yannopoulos.
“I’m surprised you have to pay PwC for data sharing, they normally do it free off their own bat,” Shoebridge quipped in estimates.
The senator, who is the Greens’ defence spokesperson, told Crikey the tax scandal hadn’t stopped the department “signing contract after contract with PwC”.
“This isn’t a single contract from a rogue tender panel, it’s at least seven contracts for work across the entire [Australian Defence Force]” Shoebridge said. “What this shows is how deeply PwC has its tentacles into the defence establishment and how complicit defence is with that cosy arrangement.”
PwC declined to comment when contacted by Crikey, but a spokesman pointed to Stubbins’ apology and actions taken by the firm in response to the tax scandal.
Apart from placing the nine partners on leave, PwC has also “ringfenced” its Commonwealth business “to minimise conflicts of interest and enhance governance”, made plans to appoint two independent directors to its governance board, and vowed to publish an independent review report in full once it’s finished.
“Although investigations are still under way, we know enough about what went wrong to acknowledge that this situation was completely unacceptable,” Stubbins said in a statement on Monday.
“No amount of words can make it right. But I am fully committed to taking all necessary actions to re-earn the trust of our stakeholders. And as we work through this process, I am committed to being fully transparent.”
The Defence Department was contacted for comment.
The damage done by the Tory’s destruction of an in dependent and competent public service is immeasurable. Some of the damage is demonstrated by the outrageous PwC breach. And my cynicism suggests to me that all the other ‘service’ providers are at least as unethical as PwC; ie the PwC ignorance of ethics is universal because of the corrupting influence of profit and commercial opportunity. But the unseen damage is the way all this outsourcing has been tailored to ensure a minister hears only what the minister wants to hear What must happen is the adoption to a credible plan to rebuild the competent, honest and independent public service to minimise outsourcing of policy work. That will take at least a decade, given the erosion has been underway since the idiotic ‘corporatisation’ of the commonwealth public service that began in the 80s.
Think Howard, Morrison, Abbott, Oily Fryberg and Hockey and plausible deniability. They gutted and degraded the public service and put their own stooges into the top levels. Plus enormous secrecy.
Gough whitlan created medicare one term btw – ehy simply accept the slow staus quo of tainted structure?
sic Whitlam
This is, of course, sick-making. Not just that they’re using PWC, but because of the sheer scope of the use of consultants. Our government thinks it’s using them, no doubt, but I think the government is being used by the consultants. Or, in the current vernacular, consultants are ‘owning’ the government. Thanks to Crikey for doing the work here.
Think Job Keeper, who were the consultants on that? Puts the Labor GFC incentives as being well considered. No longer can the Libs call themselves as the better economic managers, everything appears to have been contracted out.
This is so obviously PwC’s standard business model, and I’ve no doubt the other big accounting firms are also up to their eyeballs in the same things. Shame on them all – and some jail time as well.
It seems hard to believe that this scandal can get worse, but it does, on a near daily basis. Where will it be in a month?
I think it’s pretty easy to believe – these invasive pests are a protected species; taking the piss is all they know to do.
ive been doing my due simple due dilligence – look to the charity and non profit website while the neo libs still have it open till september ! Do some simple maths one jobs/ NDIS/ provider”/older women” disabled used as fodder fir billion dollar tech accountants / small time peddlers of spin takinn billiins and abusing the poor fodder – US
PWCs behaviour, as reported, was so egregious and self serving that it is very difficult to see how it was not condoned or tacitly authorised at the highest levels of the firm. At the very least it is indicative of a complete failure of the firm to ensure appropriate probity systems were in place and effective. The current governing board should resign and every partner who was involved in or knew of the behaviour and failed to report it should be expelled from the partnership. Trust needs to be earned by actions not words.
yes of course insider trading is rampant but like The Emperors New Clothes the visible claims and naked scams are implausible abd denied
And Labor say they are too expensive to cancel the contracts !!! wtf ! no they should be voided and sued for failure to fullfill the objectives above the contracted tasks – too expensive to promote these parasitic model in our democracy