PwC reveals partner pay, misconduct allegations
PwC Australia has revealed that former chief executive Tom Seymour was the highest-paid partner at the firm, taking home $4.6 million in 2021-22, and that the firm received dozens of misconduct complaints against partners during the past five years.
Tom Seymour at the Financial Review Business Summit in March. Michael Quelch
The firm also said, in a response to questions from a Senate inquiry published on Wednesday, that it had received more than 100 bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination complaints dating back to 2018-19 and that it had fined a partner for a conflict of interest issue in 2018.
The unprecedented detail provided by PwC in its response went well beyond scant information provided to the inquiry by rivals Deloitte, EY, KPMG and Boston Consulting Group.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock asked the questions as part of the upper house inquiry into the use of consultants. Public hearings are scheduled for next week, but PwC has not been asked to appear because of concerns that could impede an Australian Federal Police investigation into its tax leaks issue.
The inquiry was triggered by the PwC tax leaks scandal, exposed by The Australian Financial Review, and after a push by Senator Pocock. The scandal involved PwC partners using confidential government information to help clients sidestep tax laws.
PwC’s responses to Senator Pocock’s questions on notice also include a detailed breakdown of partner pay, partner distribution, its use of “separation arrangements” and other sensitive aspects of its partnership’s workings.
The detail provided by the embattled firm, which sets a new benchmark for transparency in a notoriously secretive sector, seeks to rehabilitate PwC’s public image amid the tax leaks scandal.
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