Why does Australia rely on consulting firms such as PwC and not on its own public servants? | Clancy Moore
GuardianMay 18, 2023
The Australian division of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has put nine partners on leave after the revelation that confidential tax reform plans had been shared internally and was later used to market tax planning strategies to global customers.
Internal documents showed that former partner Peter Collins, while advising the Australian government on anti-tax avoidance reforms, had shared advance news of the legislation with PwC employees, with this information later being sold to clients to help circumvent the new laws.
The Australian government has grown too cozy with the major accounting firms — outsourcing government works to them in the name of privatization. With this serious breach of trust, Australia has reaped what they've sown. Such a conflict of interest should have been obvious, and we can only hope justice will be served. The interests of a private consulting firm are not aligned with the interests of the government, and important information needs to remain as a public good.
The world's massive consulting firms are often the only ones sophisticated enough to handle complicated government audits, and we should not let one incident, led by a rouge incident, allow us to discount their value. PwC has made an egregious violation of ethics and maybe even the law, but we should not let it feed into false narratives of widespread corporate tax evasion. Public-private partnerships are a vital part of today's economy.