Senate consulting final report set for May release
Accounting firm PwC will have to wait until May 31 to learn what the committee chaired by senator Richard Colbeck will say in its final report on government consulting firms.
Colbeck and his colleagues have been warning the global accounting giant that the report will not be pretty if the firm continues to fail to present the committee with the Linklaters report that provides an account of how the accounting firm used policy information from Australia.
On February 9, Colbeck threw the book at PwC leaders during his introductory remarks, telling them the firm’s overseas network needed to understand what the failure to provide the Linklaters report looked like.
“I did say at the last hearing that you’re not being helped in your efforts to turn the Australian arm of the business around by the withholding of that report by the overarching body,” Colbeck said.
“How do we have confidence in any of the things that you’re saying that you are doing when we are treated with that disrespect?”
PwC Australia chief Kevin Burrowes told the committee in one of his rare public outings that the firm had implemented a range of measures to ensure the firm had greater scrutiny over the kind of engagements it accepted.
Firm partners recently voted on governance changes that included the introduction of independent directors to provide outside input to the firm.
The May 31 extension for the tabling of the report is the third extension the committee has received from the senate.
The first deadline was September 26, 2023. It moved to November 30 before being further extended to March 28.
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