Sayers wanted to sell PwC’s consulting business for $1b
Former PwC Australia CEO Luke Sayers was so concerned about the conflicts between the firm’s consulting and traditional audit business that he led a secret push, known as Project Kookaburra, to float the consulting business for $1 billion.
Mr Sayers, in his first public comments on the scandal, also directly contradicted earlier testimony by Tax Office second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn.
Former PwC Australia CEO Luke Sayers at a public hearing of the ongoing Senate inquiry into consulting, held in Canberra on Thursday, October 12. Alex Ellinghausen
Appearing before the Senate inquiry into consultants on Thursday, Mr Sayers had no recollection of Mr Hirschhorn telling him to “read the emails” relating to the PwC tax leaks matter.
Earlier, the firm’s new Australian boss Kevin Burrowes endured a torrid morning of testimony from senators sceptical about the ability of the embattled firm to reform the way it operates. It is the first time that representatives of PwC have given public testimony about the scandal at the federal level.
Like Mr Sayers, Mr Burrowes repeatedly apologised for the conduct of the firm relating to the tax leaks matter. The scandal, first revealed by The Australian Financial Review, involved former PwC partner Peter Collins sharing confidential tax information within the firm that was then used to develop techniques to sidestep the taxes the partner was helping Treasury develop.
The Liberal, Labor and Greens senators all repeatedly criticised Mr Burrowes and the firm over its tardy response to the tax leaks scandal and noted that the sweeping governance changes announced by the firm late last month were meaningless because they were unenforceable on a private partnership that is not covered by the
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