Mathias Cormann planned to join ex-PwC CEO Luke Sayers’ firm

afr.com:

Former finance minister Mathias Cormann was planning to join the consulting firm founded by ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers after he left the big four firm, the Senate inquiry into consultants has been told.

Mr Sayers also told the inquiry he was fined $180,000 for violating PwC’s independence policies over money he put privately into a company PwC had invested in that was bidding for a billion-dollar federal contract.

Former Finance Minister and now OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. Michael Quelch

In a response to questions from Greens Senator Barbara Pocock, Mr Sayers again denied that PwC’s culture had become problematic during his eight years of leadership of the firm. He said the Switkowski report into the firm’s tax leaks scandal related to PwC’s “current state” and not its culture during his time as CEO between 2012 and 2020.

The tax leaks scandal – which has rocked PwC’s local operation and heightened scrutiny of the multibillion-dollar consulting sector – relates to former international tax partner Peter Collins sharing confidential tax information with PwC personnel who used it to help clients sidestep laws he was helping Treasury develop and which came into effect in 2016.

In his Senate response, Mr Sayers said report by former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski into PwC was a “current state” review of the firm’s governance, structure and strategic priorities including the lack of “external ‘voices’ within the ultimate governing body”, “the excessive power conferred on the CEO” and an “overly collegial culture inhibiting constructive challenge”.

The report, released in September, blamed a “shadow” culture within PwC that tolerated bad behaviour in the pursuit of profit “growth at all costs”, and a lack of