Accounting firm PwC has a long way to go to win back community trust regardless of whether it is Kevin Burrowes or somebody else in the top job, the chair of the committee looking into consulting practices has said.
Burrowes confirmed this week he will now serve until 2026 as chief executive officer in order to bed down cultural changes that he had begun implementing with a new management team when he joined the firm in July last year.
He said that changes will not happen overnight and that it requires commitment to ensure cultural shifts and changes remain over the long term.
“I am steadfast when it comes to seeing these changes through, in their entirety. Recently, I reiterated my commitment to my hard-working partners, confirming that I intend to remain with the firm until 2026 to ensure our Action Plan is fully implemented,” Burrowes said.
“I am proud to have overseen the significant change we have achieved so far, and look forward to working with each and every one of our partners and people to enhance the firm’s culture, governance and accountability.”
News of his extended term as PwC’s local chief has sparked renewed calls from the members of the committee taking a deep dive into the PwC tax saga for the firm to be more transparent about the way information garnered during confidential policy development discussions was used not only in Australia but overseas.
The chair of the Finance and Public Administration References Committee, senator Richard Colbeck, wished Burrowes well but said that anybody sitting in the top job at the firm would have to address the failures that have been revealed over the past year.
“Their unwillingness to release the Linklaters report means that whoever is leading will be doing so with one hand tied behind their back in attempts to recover their reputation,” Colbeck said.
“As we learned at estimates hearings recently, It appears that we are still coming to understand the full extent of how information gained by PwC under confidentiality agreements was used internationally.
“Whoever is leading the organisation must come clean with the Australian Parliament and through them the Australian people on all of these matters.”
Colbeck’s committee colleague, senator Deborah O’Neill, said PwC needed to reveal the full extent of the misuse of taxpayer information to help the community understand how far the information that was at the centre of the tax policy confidentiality breach has gone.
O’Neill said Burrowes needed to take all necessary steps to address the culture of greed and absence of professionalism that was present in the firm under previous leadership.
“Until PwC have released the Linklaters report and the full extent of international collusion in Mr Peter John Collins’ misuse of taxpayer information is made public, a dark cloud remains over the firm’s capacity to engage ethically and responsibly within our nation’s financial and corporate entities,” she said.
Senator Barbara Pocock said PwC’s international headquarters might be happy with him, “we in the Australian Senate are not so impressed”.
“PwC’s convenient concealment of the full truth about who made use of confidential tax information both within Australia and internationally remains a serious blot on the leadership of PwC including that of Mr Burrows — who no doubt has the international leadership of PwC on speed dial,” Pocock said.
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