Legal experts have warned it is not clear whether the national anti-corruption commission could investigate an ongoing scandal at consulting firm PwC, despite growing calls for that to happen.
The Greens want the misuse of confidential government information – obtained by a now de-registered PwC executive and shared with colleagues to help clients and make millions of dollars – to be “top of the agenda” for the Nacc when it launches in July.
But Geoffrey Watson, a former counsel assisting the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption now with the Centre for Public Integrity, said those at the heart of the scandal could escape the Nacc’s scrutiny on a technicality.
“The honest truth is we don’t know whether it can go to the national anti-corruption commission or not,” Watson said.
The Nacc will be able to investigate allegations of corruption that involve public officials and “contracted service providers”, who may be consultants hired to provide services to government. It is not clear whether the PwC official who obtained the information meets that criteria.
“Quite often these type of consultative services are provided for free, so they wouldn’t be a contractor,” Watson said. “They are provided for free because it is a way of fostering good relations and it could make money for PwC in due course.
“There is a very good chance they are a contractor under the extended jurisdiction of the Nacc but we don’t know.”
The Greens senator Barbara Pocock said the case should clearly be investigated by the Nacc.
“If a case such as this can’t be investigated by the Nacc then we clearly have a problem with our brand new anti-corruption watchdog,” Pocock said.
“Obviously, the Nacc has yet to set any precedents around who and what it investigates but this case, where an organisation which currently has hundreds of millions dollars worth of contracts with the federal government … should be investigated.”
The chief executive of Transparency International Australia, Clancy Moore, said the Nacc was independent and its commissioner would ultimately decide what issues are investigated.
“One has to ask why one of the more than 800 public servants employed by Treasury at that time wasn’t able provide the services,” Moore said.
“Like governments and community groups, we need consultancy firms to act with the standards of transparency and accountability. Sunlight is always the best form of disinfectant.”
New polling shows public anger at scandal
Polling of 1,000 Australians conducted by the Australia Institute found 80% of respondents agreed consulting firms that leak confidential government information should be banned from consulting for the government.
An even higher share agreed that consultants should be required to answer questions about their work, including by parliamentary inquiries and that too much money was spent outsourcing the work of public servants.
The director of the the progressive thinktank’s democracy and accountability program, Bill Browne, said taxpayers were clearly outraged by the PwC scandal and wanted broad reforms.
“At their worst, consulting firms have leaked confidential government information to drum up business and potentially help their multinational clients avoid paying millions of dollars in tax,” Brown said.
“If consultants were required to be subject to FoI laws and appear before Senate estimates, as public servants would be if they were performing the same work, that would assist in breaking up what appears to be a culture of impunity and rent seeking.”
A parliamentary inquiry into the government’s use of consultants may call for PwC executives to appear in person in coming weeks.
