Largest Australian pension fund suspends auditing by PwC. Australia’s largest pension fund will stop using PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s local business after the “big four” firm was caught using sensitive government tax plans to win worldwide clients.
According to a spokeswoman, AustralianSuper has stopped new contracts with PwC and expressed concerns “at the highest level” about the incident.
The spokeswoman stated that this year will consider a 2022 audit contract for A$1.6 million. Filings show the fund spent A$700,000 on non-audit services last year.
AustralianSuper’s move increases the repercussions of a controversy over the misuse of government tax schemes. It raises the potential that private-sector companies could follow a growing list of government bodies examining or stopping their cooperation with the firm.
On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia stopped further contracts, and Treasury and the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority said the firm is blocked.
A former PwC Australia tax partner was consulting with the government on measures to deter corporate tax avoidance and shared secret drafts with colleagues to pitch U.S. technology corporations, among others.
This week, tax officials told a Senate panel that the leak prevented many multinational businesses from subverting new tax evasion legislation.
A$150 billion AwareSuper said it was working with PwC to investigate if its tax advisers were involved in the leak. A spokeswoman also noted an internal evaluation of external experts.
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