The politicians who exposed PwC’s leak of government secrets have claimed the scandal is not isolated to Australia, citing emails that reveal global partners knew they received confidential material and provided assistance.
Confirmation that PwC Australia partners shared confidential details about multinational tax plans triggered an internal investigation, released on Wednesday, which exposed a culture where “revenue is king” and profit is sometimes prioritised above ethics.
The firm also disclosed additional confidentiality breaches, including the sharing of consultations about digital currencies, the “black economy”, information from an international tax treaties panel and a draft OECD report into profit shifting.
In response, PwC’s global executive said there was no evidence that confidential information was used by partners outside Australia for commercial gain. That claim is based on a report by the law firm Linklaters, which has not been publicly released.
“With respect to those PwC people who did receive confidential information from PwC Australia, most did not know the information was confidential,” a statement uploaded to the global PwC website claimed. “However, the review found that six individuals should have raised questions as to whether the information was confidential.”
PwC’s global chair, Bob Moritz, said “the situation that arose in PwC Australia is a reminder to the PwC network that maintaining a culture of quality and integrity is a continuous process that requires focus, effort and dedication”.
Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who is part of the Senate inquiry that exposed the scale of the scandal, was not satisfied by the global division’s assurance and questioned how thoroughly the firm had investigated its international involvement.
“The claim that international PwC partners and firms are devoid of responsibility or misconduct is not based on the determination of any genuinely independent investigative body or process,” O’Neill told Guardian Australia.
One 2016 email updating Australian partners on how Treasury information was being used to secure work from “brand-defining” US companies, known as “the North American Project”, said the team had worked with “other PwC network firms extensively (notably PwC US, PwC Singapore, and PwC Netherlands)”.
A 2014 email shows staff with accounts based in the Asia Pacific, US, Europe and the Middle East discussed a confidential draft report by the OECD. The sender wrote “this draft was provided to me on a strictly confidential basis”.
Another 2014 email sent to international colleagues said: “Recently I forwarded you an early confidential draft of the OECD BEPS [Base Erosion and Profit Shifting] project on mandatory disclosure reporting … we will need comments quickly please”.
One UK-based PwC staffer described the report as “troubling” and something that “will need to be watched closely” before providing his comments and feedback.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who has also led the Senate inquiry, claimed PwC’s global executive was “clearly worried about damage to their brand and are desperately trying to lay the blame squarely at the door of PwC Australia”.
“The assertion that none of the international operatives who received and used the confidential information from the tax office have any culpability in this matter is a snow job,” Pocock said, using a term that refers to a deception.
“I’ve read the emails. It’s unmistakably clear that this material was not meant to be shared, yet here we have PwC’s global chair telling us there were just six people who didn’t actually know it was confidential but should have asked.”
James Guthrie, an emeritus accounting professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, also disputed claims the scandal was contained to Australia and called for more transparency.
“There is no public disclosure on how Linklaters formed a view in their review that found no evidence that any PwC personnel outside Australia used confidential information from PwC Australia for commercial gain,” Guthrie said.
“The disclosed emails suggested PwC was using the confidential advice as part of a plan to market its services to large multinational corporations that would be subject to Australia’s new tax avoidance laws, particularly US tech companies.”
Guthrie referred to PwC Australia’s admission it did not launch a rigorous internal investigation once it was told by Australia’s tax agent regulator in 2021 that it was investigating potential breaches of confidentiality.
“PwC Australian partnership did not report within its statutory 30-day deadline to self-declare reportable events to the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which is a private, not-for-profit corporation that can conduct investigations and disciplinary proceedings into the big four,” Guthrie said.
