Category Archives: PwC

PwC urged Labor to delay multinational tax transparency laws, Senate submissions reveal

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The firm joined the other big four consultancies in calling for the world-leading regime to be postponed or watered down

PwC, the other big four consultancies and the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia were among the entities that urged the federal government to delay and water down proposed multinational tax transparency laws.

Australia’s proposed country-by-country reporting would make it a world leader in tax transparency, compelling multinationals to publish detailed location-specific information about their revenue, expenses and effective tax rate to deter profit shifting and tax avoidance.

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PwC charged health department to provide ‘risk management’ workshop in weeks before scandal

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Exclusive: Consultancy firm ran event at Department of Health and Aged Care in December, days before former PwC partner was banned by tax advice regulator

PwC Australia billed taxpayers to deliver a “risk management workshop” to a department that was subsequently forced to suspend the firm’s $2.3m contract in the aged care sector, pending an investigation into potential conflicts of interest.

The $36,000 engagement has been described as “frankly absurd” by the public sector union and criticised by legal academics given a Senate committee report released in June 2023 that confirmed the consultancy firm had been engaging in a “calculated” breach of trust.

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Australia news live: authorities given stop and search powers near Qld border in bid to stop fire ants; Matildas public holiday not on national cabinet agenda, PM says

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Agricultural officers given power to stop and search cars and trucks near the Queensland-NSW border. Follow the latest news live

Search efforts continue for third Indonesian crew member

Search efforts are continuing today for the third Indonesian crew member who remains missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Indonesia.

The search continues for a crew member who is still missing.

Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones.

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PwC did not disclose any conflicts of interest before winning aged care auditing contract

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Consulting firm’s contract to audit the Morrison government’s workforce bonus program remains suspended, department confirms

PwC Australia did not disclose any real or perceived conflicts of interest to the federal government before it was awarded a $2.3m aged care contract that has been suspended since June amid a continuing investigation.

The firm was contracted by the Department of Health and Aged Care to audit the Morrison government’s workforce bonus program, which provided two pre-election payments in 2022 worth up to $800 to attract and retain staff in the struggling aged care sector.

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PwC lost track of number of client privilege claims allegedly used to stymie ATO investigations

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Consulting firm couldn’t say how many times its former general counsel was involved in privilege claims made to tax office, Senate inquiry hears

PwC Australia lost track of who prepared dozens of client privilege claims that blocked the Australian Tax Office from gathering evidence for its investigations, a Senate inquiry has heard.

Earlier this week, the ATO published a timeline of the PwC scandal that confirmed years of frustration at the firm over allegedly withholding information related to multinational tax avoidance.

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Wilko suspends home deliveries as it holds talks on rescue deal

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Budget retailer and adviser PwC have until Monday to find new funding

The troubled budget retailer Wilko has stopped offering home deliveries for orders on its website as it holds last-ditch talks on a potential rescue deal.

The household and garden products retail chain, which has about 400 stores, warned last week that it was on the brink of collapse, with more than 12,000 jobs at risk.

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PwC scandal: Australian Tax Office tried to get federal police to investigate in 2018

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Tax office tells Senate committee it did not have the investigative powers to secure enough evidence from consultancy firm, hampering efforts to persuade federal police to investigate

Repeated efforts by the Australian Tax Office to convince federal police to investigate PwC in 2018 failed because it did not have “the investigative powers” to secure key evidence.

For the first time the ATO has published a detailed timeline of the PwC scandal that confirms years of frustration at the firm allegedly withholding information about how it helped multinational companies avoid paying tax.

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Labor launches crackdown on tax adviser misconduct following PwC scandal

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Government says it will increase penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes and bolster regulators’ powers

Penalties for promoting tax avoidance schemes will be increased tenfold and financial regulators will get much stronger powers as the federal government seeks to fix “severe shortcomings” in the nation’s financial systems exposed by the PwC scandal.

In what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers calls, “the biggest crackdown on tax adviser misconduct in Australian history”, advisers and firms promoting tax exploitation schemes would face fines up to $780m, while red tape that hamstrung regulators from better investigating PwC will be slashed. The Treasury department will also conduct a two-year whole-of-government response to the shortcomings exposed by the disclosure of confidential tax information.

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Finance department hires consultant to advise on hiring consultants in move compared to ABC’s Utopia

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Exclusive: Department’s $32,000 contract, which comes after PwC tax leak scandal, slammed as ‘laughable scenario’

The finance department has entered into a $32,000 contract with an external consultant to provide advice on how it should engage other external consultants who also provide advice to government, in a move that has been slammed as a “laughable scenario”.

The contract has been compared to an episode of the ABC satire Utopia and as an example of the public service’s reliance on external expertise, even as the federal government tries to save money and do more work in-house.

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NSW police taskforce to investigate spate of shootings – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Wholesale power prices down from a year ago but still at elevated levels

Emissions from Australia’s main electricity grid dropped more than 6% in the June quarter from a year ago to a record-low for the period, and wholesale prices stabilised, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said.

I think some of the people who are raising issues in the US Congress about this are saying ‘look the US has its own issues about its industrial base, its capacity to up its submarine production.’

But you know, what Aukus is about is actually augmenting the capacity to supply submarines in the region. And we Australia will be injecting money into the US industrial base.

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PwC promoted firm it part-owned in ‘independent’ mental health report for Australian government

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Exclusive: Report referenced key findings from trials by Innowell, in which PwC had a 45% shareholding

Consultancy giant PwC promoted the work of a company it part-owned in a report it produced for the federal government about Australia’s digital mental health strategy – while being paid $1m for the “independent” advice.

PwC’s 45% shareholding in Innowell was declared to the government before the contract was awarded but not in the final report which was delivered in November 2022. A disclaimer section states the firm “acted exclusively for the Australian government department of health and considered no one else’s interests”.

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Turnbull government’s $33m grant went to company part-owned by mental health commissioner after lobbying

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Exclusive: Funding to Innowell in 2017 without competitive tender was for mental health app and followed months of lobbying by Prof Ian Hickie. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Hickie

The former government led by Malcolm Turnbull awarded a $33m grant to a company that was developing a mental health app after months of lobbying from one of its own mental health commissioners who was also a shareholder in the months-old startup.

The one-off grant was awarded in 2017 without a competitive tender to Innowell for a series of collaborative research trials into a digital mental health platform. Its shareholders include PwC, the University of Sydney and former mental health commissioner Prof Ian Hickie.

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Essential poll: sizeable support for Daniel Andrews’ decision to scrap Commonwealth Games

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Almost 60% of people support players receiving equal pay in the Women’s World Cup

More than 40% of Australians agree with Daniel Andrews’ controversial decision to scrap the Commonwealth Games, with his home state most supportive of the move, new polling shows.

While critics bemoaned the decision as “an international embarrassment”, the latest Guardian Essential poll found Australians were less invested, with 41% of those polled agreeing with the Victorian government’s decision, while 36% disagreed and 24% were unsure.

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PwC-backed mental health platform was scrapped after $33m government trial launched without open tender

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Experts call for transparency over Project Synergy grant awarded to Innowell, whose platform is no longer used by the federal health department

A PwC-backed startup received tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through a closed, non-competitive grant to develop a digital mental health platform, which was almost scrapped due to health workers finding it an administrative burden.

Policy experts and transparency watchdogs have raised alarm about the grant and called on the federal government to explain why the money was not allocated through an open and competitive process to ensure value for money.

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Public servants complained about PwC ‘spamming’ them with unsolicited work offers, emails reveal

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Correspondence released by agriculture department shows level of discomfort among officials about embattled firm’s efforts to land new contracts

Senior public servants have complained about PwC “spamming” them with unsolicited bids for work, internal emails reveal, with department managers told to be vigilant about the potential misuse of government information and the importance of protecting taxpayer money.

The emails, released by the department of agriculture, provide more detail about a practice criticised by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and demonstrate the level of discomfort within the public service about PwC’s methods of trying to land new contracts.

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Australian government spending on big four consultancy firms up 1,270% in a decade, analysis shows

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PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY face scrutiny as critics warn core functions of democracy should not be outsourced

The amount of taxpayer money given to the big four consultancy firms for management advisory services has increased by more than 1,270% in a decade, according to new analysis from the Centre for Public Integrity.

The analysis comes as the big four face intense scrutiny after disclosing the misuse of government information and multiple conflicts of interest, as well as concerns that taxpayers are being ripped off for work the public service once conducted itself.

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Australia news live: ‘are you really worth seven times the salary of the PM?’ Labor senator asks Deloitte chief

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Former competition watchdog Allan Fels tells parliamentary inquiry federal government must act now to avoid conflicts of interest. Follow the day’s news live

Divers are trying to retrieve hundreds of drones that plunged into Melbourne’s Yarra River over the weekend due to a technical error.

The drones were part of a light show for the Matildas’ game against France on Friday night but fell into the river due to a technical glitch. The retrieval operation began on Sunday and is continuing on Monday.

We want to see all drones taken back out of the river because we know if they are left there they will leach chemicals which can damage the environment.

We want investors to come into the market to take advantage of the great demand for rental accommodation.

But we don’t want to stifle that by putting unnecessary burden (on landlords).

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PwC announces it will cease donations to political parties as part of attempt to rebuild reputation

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Consulting firm’s self-imposed ban follows scandal over misuse of confidential government tax information

PwC has announced it will no longer make donations to political parties, but a Labor senator central to investigating the consultancy firm’s misuse of confidential government tax information says the company needs to further boost its own accountability procedures.

In a note to the company’s partners on Monday, PwC’s acting CEO Kristin Stubbins said the firm’s self-imposed ban on making political donations was an “important step” in rebuilding its reputation.

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PwC to repay $800,000 for work on robodebt after damning royal commission report

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Embattled consulting firm also reveals it no longer employs partner involved in work on the scheme for the Department of Human Services

The consulting firm PwC will repay more than $800,000 it pocketed for work it completed on the robodebt scheme and has confirmed a partner involved in the work is no longer employed by the embattled company.

The firm’s acting CEO, Kristin Stubbins, confirmed that it would repay the $853,859 it was paid by the Department of Human Services to review the scheme.

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PwC Australia allegedly provided confidential tax law information to Google

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Google, the first of the firm’s customers directly linked to the tax scandal, was not told the information was confidential and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the company

PwC Australia allegedly provided Google confidential information about the start date of a new tax law leaked from Australian government tax briefings, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

This is the first time a company has been directly linked to the national scandal involving the “big four” accounting firm that was revealed in January.

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