PwC Australia has installed six new industry leaders via a merit-based appointment process, as its chief executive, Kevin Burrowes, moves to put an end to the previous practice where the CEO had almost complete authority to make key appointments.

The power of the CEO within the firm, and the lack of proper oversight of the role, were partly to blame for both PwC’s tax leaks scandal and its delayed response to the matter, according to a governance report and a summary of three legal reports published by PwC last week.

PwC Australia’s chief executive Kevin Burrowes.

The firm has also created a new central committee that will consider the ethical, financial and reputation risk of existing and upcoming work. That committee will also take referrals from clients who want to object to the firm taking on work they believe will be “adverse to their interests”.

Mr Burrowes told The Australian Financial Review he wanted to end the “boys’ club” method of appointing partners to senior leadership roles as part of extensive reforms to the way the firm operates.

“I’ve already announced that senior roles and positions inside PwC Australia will be merit-based, it won’t be me appointing [in a] ‘boys’ club’ approach,” he said last week ahead of the reports being made public.

“That’s something I successfully introduced in PwC in the UK, it works really well. It’s about merit, it’s about partners putting themselves forward. That will bring different voices into the room, it will bring different challenge into the room.”

PwC partner and retail and consumer industry leader Brian Man.

The initial set of merit-based industry leaders include newer PwC partners as well as partners who have spent their entire career within the big four firm.

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