事件升级！普华永道澳洲泄密事件调查或扩大到海外！有高管建议监管扩大到咨询业！|澳大利亚_新浪财经

普华永道澳大利亚公司泄密事件在年初被曝光。2023年5月2日，澳大利亚参议院委员会公布一批该公司内部电子邮件，涉及普华永道前首席执行官Tom Seymour及数十名普华永道的合伙人和员工。Tom Seymour已辞职并宣布退休，此后普华永道还解雇了一批涉事员工。目前，普华永道澳大利亚公司还在接受监管机构对信息泄露事件的独立审查。详见《普华永道澳洲启动泄密事件独立调查，前CEO已被官网除名！》

对泄密事件的调查可能扩大到海外

澳大利亚税务官员表示，他们正在与国际同行合作，探讨与普华永道泄密事件有关的任何境外潜在犯罪。

澳大利亚税务局专员Jeremy Hirschhorn在参议院关于咨询业的新听证会上表示，“此类（泄密）行为可能引发其他司法管辖区的潜在犯罪，监管机构应当向海外同行分享此类信息和关注。”

在警方被要求对泄密事件展开新的调查后，普华永道的高管预计将在本次听证会上发言，但参议员们并未传唤他们，避免他们的回答影响刑事诉讼。

毕马威澳大利亚首席执行官Andrew Yates在听证会上说，他支持澳大利亚政府提出的加强监管机构的权力，包括扩大企业监管机构--澳大利亚证券和投资委员会--的作用至咨询业。

Hirschhorn称：“此前普华永道的电子邮件清楚地表明，普华永道内部的国际税收网络在国际上运作，足以颠覆澳大利亚的法律发展或法律的应用。”

Andrew Yates提出了在公共部门继续使用四大会计师事务所的顾问和审计师的理由。同时，他称"普华永道的行为显然是不道德的，不可接受的"。

普华永道一直面临着公布此前接收泄密邮件的合伙人以及可能受益客户完整名单的压力。

普华永道本周初向参议员提供了一份63人的名单，同时还列出了4名据说参与信息共享的前合伙人。详见《67名合伙人被点名，普华永道澳大利亚提交涉泄密人员名单！》。

普华永道的一位发言人说：“对我们来说，为了确保此事公平调查，重要的是尊重正在进行的调查和法律程序。”

价值2700万美元的政府部门合同接受独立审查

墨累达令流域管理局（The Murray-Darling Basin Authority，以下简称MDBA）已致函普华永道，以期保证价值超过2,800万美元的审计和河流建模合同中的机密信息没有被泄露。

普华永道持有价值77.5万美元的三年期MDBA审计合同，该合同将于今年6月30日到期。它还获得了一份在单一平台上简化河流模型的重大合同。

这份为期四年的“综合河流建模提升计划”合同价值2,741.7万美元。普华永道还赢得了一份价值16.77万美元的云计算平台Microsoft Azure相关但单独的合同。

MDBA的首席执行官Andrew McConville告诉参议院，普华永道已经证实，有措施可以确保两份合同中的保密条款得到满足。

McConville说："还有很重要的一点是，我们最近再次联系普华永道，寻求保证。他们采取了相关控制和措施，以确保我们的服务没有受到影响，我们的机密信息也没有被泄露。

但普华永道的保证也已被提交给MDBA的独立审计委员会进行审查。

当被问及如果独立审计委员会感到担忧，MDBA是否会重新考虑与普华永道的合同时，McConville说 "将仔细考虑与普华永道的未来合作"。

他告诉澳大利亚《卫报》："目前还没有做出任何决定"。

普华永道没有回复有关MDBA合同的具体问题。

国民党参议员Ross Cadell在参议院会议上提出了河道建模合同，指出 "关于普华永道和更广泛的保密性方面的担忧"。

他说："普华永道与MDBA的合同中是否有条款，或者是否有我们担心泄露到市场上的敏感数据？“

MDBA的Andrew Kremor表示，河流建模合同包括“额外的保密要求......以及与敏感市场信息有关的其他保证”。

Kremor说，MDBA不具备将24个河流模型统一到一个平台的专业知识。

MDBA的首席运营官Annette Blyton介绍，澳大利亚国家审计署在其2023-24年的计划草案中提出了对河流模型合同的审查。

Blyton告诉参议院：“他们需要将该计划中的审计减半，所以它可能会也可能不会进行”。

南澳大利亚州绿党参议员Barbara Pocock说，MDBA应该“采取任何他们可以采取的行动，以确保合同的条款得到满足。”

Barbara Pocock补充道：“普华永道在政府工作的许多领域都有其触角。我认为需要在每个部门和机构内部对他们与普华永道的所有合同进行彻底检查，以识别潜在的利益冲突，并采取行动确保保密性。”

原英文报道如下：

Australian tax office explores possible offences

abroad in PwC scandal

Australian tax officials have said they are working with international peers to explore any potential offences outside the country related to the PwC tax leaks scandal.

Jeremy Hirschhorn, second commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office, told a new Senate hearing on the consulting industry that the regulator has the power to share information and concerns to overseas counterparts regarding “potential offences in other jurisdictions that might have been triggered by some of this behaviour”.

The public inquiry follows the revelations that a PwC partner involved in developing laws designed to crack down on multinational tax avoidance shared confidential information with colleagues, who won business on the back of his guidance.

The Senate released internal PwC emails last month that showed partners within Australia and internationally discussing the use of the confidential information.

PwC executives were expected to speak at the current hearing but senators opted against calling on them in case any of their answers prejudiced potential criminal action, after police were asked to open a new investigation into the leaks scandal.

KPMG, a rival ‘Big Four’ firm, appeared instead and said that the industry needed to rebuild trust with the government and the public. Andrew Yates, chief executive of KPMG Australia, told the hearing that he supported a strengthening of the powers of regulators, as proposed by the Australian government, including extending the role of the corporate regulator — the Australian Securities & Investments Commission — to cover the consulting industry.

Hirschhorn responded to questions from MPs about the impact of the PwC confidentiality breach on Australia’s “cutting-edge” role in tailoring laws to stop multinational companies avoiding tax by using complex structures stretching across various countries.

“Those emails clearly show the international tax network within PwC was operating internationally to subvert the Australian law development or the application of the law,” he said.

Despite being grilled by senators over two recent conflict of interest issues involving his own consultancy, KPMG’s Yates made the case for the continued use of consultants and auditors from the Big Four in the public sector. However, he conceded the PwC breach was particularly “disturbing” and “the conduct of PwC was clearly unethical and unacceptable”.

PwC has been under pressure to release a full list of partners who were included in the emails and of the clients that potentially benefited from its advice.

The firm provided a list of 63 names to senators at the start of the week, as well as naming four former partners whom it said were involved in the sharing of information and nine partners who have been stood down by the consultant pending the outcome of a review.

“It is important for us to respect the ongoing investigations and legal processes to ensure this matter is investigated appropriately, and that is what we are doing,” a spokesman for PwC said.

PwC Australia scandal: $27m river modelling contract

referred to audit body

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has written to PricewaterhouseCoopers seeking assurances that confidential information contained in audit and river modelling contracts worth more than $28m has not been shared.

PwC holds the $775,000 three-year contract to audit the MDBA, ending on 30 June this year. It was also awarded a major contract to streamline river models on to a single platform.

The four-year “integrated river modelling uplift program” contract is worth $27.417m. PwC also won a related but separate contract around the cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure, worth $167,700.

The MDBA chief executive, Andrew McConville, told Senate estimates that PwC had confirmed that there were practices in place to ensure the confidentiality clauses were met across both contracts.

“It’s important to note, also, that we’ve recently reached out again to PwC, seeking assurances, and they’ve been provided to us in terms of the controls and practices that they have in place to ensure that our services have [not] been affected, and that our confidential information is not and has not been involved or compromised,” McConville said.

But PwC’s assurance has also been referred to the MDBA’s independent audit committee for review.

“Referral to the MDBA’s independent audit committee for consideration at its next meeting is an entirely normal step in such circumstances,” McConville said.

Asked whether the MDBA would seek to reconsider its contracts with PwC if the independent audit committee was concerned, McConville said “any next steps regarding engagement with PwC will be considered carefully”.

“No decisions have been taken,” he told Guardian Australia.

McConville said the MDBA’s independent audit committee was “entirely separate” to PwC’s role as the authority’s internal business auditor.

“The MDBA has sought and obtained assurances from PwC in relation to the integrity of the contract to deliver this internal audit service,” he said. “This contract is entirely separate to the independent audit committee (which is independent of the MDBA and PwC) and entirely separate to the Integrated River Modelling Uplift contract.”

PwC did not respond to specific questions regarding the MDBA contracts.

The company is facing multiple investigations, including a referral to the Australian federal police, after its now former international tax chief Peter Collins allegedly used confidential information and documents obtained through his work for the government for the firm’s commercial gain.

In an open letter its acting chief executive, Kristin Stubbins, apologised on behalf of the company and for “betraying the trust placed in us”.

She said PwC Australia had commenced a process to “ring-fence the provision of services to federal government departments and agencies to enhance our controls to prevent conflicts of interest”.

Stubbins said this would include separate governance and oversight arrangements for the business by the end of September, covering all services to federal government departments and agencies.

The Nationals senator Ross Cadell raised the river modelling contract at Senate estimates, citing “concerns around PwC and the broader aspects of confidentiality”.

“Are there clauses in this [PwC] contract, or is there any sensitive data with which we’re concerned about confidentiality leaking into market, or anything like that?” he said.

MDBA’s Andrew Kremor told estimates the river modelling contract included “additional confidentiality requirements … as well as other assurances to do with sensitive market information”.

Kremor said the MDBA did not have the expertise to unify 24 river models into a single platform.

The MDBA chief operating officer, Annette Blyton, said the Australian National Audit Office had flagged a review of the river modelling contract in its draft plan for 2023-24.

“They need to halve the audits that they’ve got on that plan, so it may or may not proceed,” Blyton told Senate estimates.

The South Australian Greens senator Barbara Pocock said the MDBA should “take whatever action is open to them to ensure that the terms of the contract are being met”.

“PwC has its tentacles in so many areas of government work it’s like a shadow government. I think there needs to be a thorough examination within each department and agency of all their contracts with PwC to determine identify potential conflicts of interest and take action to ensure confidentiality, and that includes the MDBA.”

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