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https://theconversation.com/consultants-like-pwc-are-loyal-to-profit-not-the-public-governments-should-cut-back-on-using-them-205920>
"The PwC scandal reveals appalling behaviour by an individual consultant and
his company that provided consulting services to the federal government.
PwC reportedly used its insider knowledge to advise multinational firms on how
to continue to avoid tax when the legislation it advised on came into
operation.
Confidentiality agreements were broken and the central objective of the
contracted advice – to address tax avoidance by multinational companies – was
directly subverted.
In light of this case, a Senate committee is investigating the use of
consultancy firms by the federal government.
While the terms of reference focus on conflicts of interest, committee members
are also interested in the growth in the use of consultants and contractors in
recent years, how they are managed by government, and the impact this is having
on the public service. As a former Australian Public Service Commissioner, I
appeared before the committee to discuss these wider issues on May 2 this year.
So far, no evidence has been provided that the PwC case is representative of
widespread abuse among consulting firms of their contracted obligations, or of
extensive and systematic failure to properly manage conflicts of interest.
But the scale of the use of consultants raises questions about how well
conflicts are managed and, indeed, about value for money in the use of such
external advice by federal government agencies."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
