[ad_1]

The troubled consulting company PwC Australia, which is selling its lucrative government consulting division for $1, has parachuted in a new CEO.

After seven weeks, acting CEO Kristin Stubbins was fired, and Singapore-based global clients and industries leader Kevin Burrowes will take her position.

Additionally, PwC disclosed that it has signed an exclusive deal to sell its federal and state government consulting business to private equity company Allegro Funds for a meagre $1 fee.

Mr. Burrowes, who is still awaiting the clearance of his visa so he can move and join PwC Australia as a partner, said on Sunday that he was honoured to accept the position.

Along with the leadership team, I will put in endless effort to improve our governance and culture, as well as to boost transparency and rebuild stakeholder trust, he said.

Since it was charged with abusing its position as a trusted advisor by disclosing details of potential federal tax changes to customers for financial advantage, PwC Australia has been under a lot of scrutiny.

Peter Collins, a former PwC partner, has since been reported to federal police, and nine other partners have resigned.

To repair trust with the public and the government, the company’s then-CEO Tom Seymour apologised and resigned from his position in May.

According to Justin Carroll, chair of the PwC Australia board, the sale of PwC’s government contracts to Allegro, which is anticipated to be completed by the end of July, would safeguard 1700 employment.

“This transaction will result in the first pure play, at scale, government business in the market,” he declared.

This was a very difficult decision, but we are resolved to take every necessary action to safeguard our employees’ jobs and win back the confidence of our stakeholders.

The timing of PwC’s sale of government contracts, according to Labour senator Deborah O’Neill, is still a matter of controversy.

“The whole amount is just mind-boggling itself, $1 for a business of this scale,” she said on ABC Radio on Monday.

“[They have been] extremely refractory to any of those public inquiries, yet we have this unseemly haste with a profit-driven motive to try and phoenix itself back into some sort of connection with the government,”

Senator O’Neill, who has been leading parliamentary attempts to investigate PwC’s behaviour, warned that there may be further wrongdoing within the company.

She claimed that “we’ve lifted the curtain on a set of practises that this sector tried to keep under wraps and have simply accepted as business as usual for a very, very long time.”

“PwC employees who have been on the partner track for the majority of their careers have been ingrained with the company’s ways, which have now been exposed to the Australian public as being disrespectful of the Australian public.”

Two distinct businesses will be formed as a result of the government consultancy business being sold.

Additionally, it signals PwC Australia’s departure from all consulting roles with the federal and state governments.

About 20% of the Australian company’s fiscal year 2023 sales came from the division.

However, PwC claimed that it would enable the company to move past the tax leak controversy and guarantee stability for the remainder of its clients in other areas of the company.

Both the state and federal departments of finance stated that they would hold off on evaluating the effects of the suggested reorganisation.

According to the Australian Department of Finance, “carefully considering the implications of these changes for existing and future contracting arrangements” will be done.

In September, an impartial investigation into PwC’s actions in the incident, led by former Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski, is scheduled to be published.

[ad_2]

Source link