PwC global chair tells senators he won't share tax scandal report
In correspondence with Australian senators, PwC’s global chair has doubled down on the global organisation’s decision to withhold the findings of its international review.
PwC’s global chair, Bob Moritz, has informed Australian policymakers the firm will not release the report detailing the outcomes of its international tax leaks review.
The correspondence between Moritz and the senators has not been made public, however, PwC International posted a statement to its website on Thursday that asserted its right to invoke legal professional privilege over the report.
A spokesperson for PwC Australia told Accounting Times that senators had asked PwC Australia to request more information about the international review.
The report contains the outcomes of an international review carried out by law firm Linklaters, PwC International, and PwC member firms.
It aimed to identify whether the confidential information leaked by PwC Australia personnel was received by PwC member firms outside Australia, whether it was acted upon for commercial benefit, and whether it should have triggered red flags among its recipients.
PwC International said it was entitled to assert legal professional privilege “without any suggestion that doing so is a failure to cooperate.”
It also said that “most” of the recipients of the confidential information leaked by PwC Australia personnel “did not have reason to believe that the information should not have been shared with them.”
Many of the recipients were international tax practitioners who “routinely received updates on OECD developments at the time,” said PwC.
PwC added that, since the base erosion and profit shifting project, which was the subject of the leaks, included global, and often public, consultations it is “unsurprising” that the receipt of the updates from Australian personnel “did not raise alarm.”
Among those six partners who, the international review concluded, “should have raised questions” around the confidentiality of the information, none obtained a commercial benefit nor shared the information beyond PwC.
“While these individuals may have fallen short of PwC’s high expectations that its people raise their hands in such a situation, this is not the same as having breached professional standards,” it said.
Senator Richard Colbeck, chair of the consulting inquiry on Wednesday, said the firm’s unwillingness to share the report undermines its commitments to change.
“They’ve been refusing to provide us with the Linklaters report for some time, claiming legal professional privilege,” he said.
“That was how they pushed back against the Tax Office when they were trying to look into the tax schemes that had been designed using this information in the first place.”
He added: “They talk about changes in behaviour and yet they demonstrate none.”
Senator Colbeck said the global organisation is refusing to produce the report to prevent overseas authorities from investigating.
“My view is that what’s happening is that PwC International is trying to cauterise the pain from all of this and limit it to Australia,” he said.
“I don’t understand why all of the people involved in this process in Australia should wear the opprobrium,” while the others “get off scot-free.”
Senator Barbara Pocock said she “will be seeking” to have PwC International appear before the joint parliamentary inquiry.
According to Senator Colbeck, having them “front up” is one option. Another is to request foreign policymakers to crack down on the firm’s overseas branches. He added it was his view that “there is something for them to look at.”
“I’ve written to committee counterparts in the US and the UK, forwarding a copy of our initial report for them to look at,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to the secretariats of the committees in the US, we’ll send some further information to them.”
