A senior government official told an inquiry on Thursday that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will fire personnel involved in releasing and using classified Australian tax plans.

The accounting company is involved in a nationwide scandal for using sensitive knowledge about proposed tax regulations to solicit business. Wednesday’s Australian Treasury referral to police for a criminal inquiry.

Finance Department Secretary Jenny Wilkinson told a Senate committee that PwC has agreed to remove workers “directly involved and with knowledge” of the breach from existing and future contracts until it completes an internal inquiry in September.

PwC declined to comment.

The company said it was “committed to learning from our mistakes” and would assist with any investigations.
Wilkinson called “PwC’s abuse of confidence and trust with the Treasury and PwC’s subsequent handling of this breach to be a very serious issue.”

After the controversy, she advocated changing future contracts to give the government more flexibility to cancel contracts.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said earlier in the day that legal restrictions prevent the government from canceling auditor contracts.

“We face legal constraints around existing contracts, but I can tell you there is some furious work going on within government to understand what the legal constraints are on us here,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told ABC Radio.

As of May 16, a finance committee employee told the Senate committee that the Australian federal government has contracted with PwC for A$255.2 million ($173 million) this financial year.

In January, an Australian government authority alleged a former PwC tax partner communicated classified government advising information with colleagues.

He worked on new tax policies to prevent multinational firms from moving earnings from Australia to tax and secrecy havens.

This month’s congressional hearing revealed hundreds of partially redacted emails between tens of PwC partners discussing and pitching the material.

“I ask that you don’t circulate it beyond us or discuss it outside PwC – it would really put PwC Australia and me in a real bind,” said one partially deleted email.

PwC’s Australia CEO resigned last month after admitting to receiving the sensitive material.

The Big Four accounting firms—EY, Deloitte, and KPMG—have previously lost key executives to scandals.

In 2021, EY Germany’s head resigned from Wirecard’s bankruptcy.