The finance department has rejected a last minute plea from three senators who led parliamentary inquiries into PwC Australia urging it not to lift a ban on the consultancy firm competing for new government work.
Last month, Guardian Australia revealed the finance department had recommended the end of a long-term ban triggered by a scandal involving the misuse of confidential Treasury information.
Former PwC Australia partners no longer working at the firm remain under investigation by the Australian federal police.
Finance’s report into the ethical soundness of PwC Australia and its recommendation was due to be published on 25 July, until the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, requested the department consider the views of Greens senator Barbara Pocock, Labor senator Deborah O’Neill and Liberal senator Richard Colbeck.
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The three senators wrote to the department last month urging it not to lift the ban, which was introduced in April 2024, while the tax leaks scandal was being investigated by federal police.
“In our view, there is no meaningful justification for giving them the green light after such little time and while significant investigations remain ongoing,” the three senators wrote.
The department wrote to the senators on Thursday and confirmed that while their views were respected, it would not be changing its position.
“Finance considers that it would not be appropriate to delay a decision on its assessment of the ethical soundness of PwC Australia,” the department wrote in a letter seen by Guardian Australia.
PwC Australia cannot bid for consultancy work until 2028 due to a non-compete clause with spin-off advisory service Scyne, which was created after the firm sold its entire government services division for just $1 at the height of the scandal.
But PwC Australia can bid for other work with the government, including audit services. The decision is also an important step for the firm as it seeks to rebuild its trust with the private sector, which is the primary focus of its business.
All government departments have now been told they should “treat PwC Australia equitably as they would any other potential supplier when undertaking procurement processes”.
But the finance department will require PwC Australia to provide six-monthly updates on its internal cultural overhaul and closely monitor its conduct until 30 June 2027.
PwC Australia’s chief executive, Kevin Burrowes, thanked the finance department for its decision and said the firm was “proud of the progress we’ve made over the past two years”.
“There is more work to do as we strive to become the pre-eminent professional services firm, with a focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for our clients, using our deep-industry sector expertise,” Burrowes said.
But the decision has angered Pocock who said she was “deeply disappointed in the government”.
“The government decision to let PwC back into the contracting consulting fold is an insult to the senators and MPs who worked on two parliamentary inquiries examining what went wrong at PwC,” Pocock said.
“We made a raft of recommendations which have yet to be enacted, while the government renews its contracting relationship with this disgraced entity.”
O’Neill said “the department’s decision is premature and lacks an understanding of the intimacy of the relationship between PwC’s global and Australian entities”.
“The letter I sent with my colleagues Senator Pocock and Senator Colbeck stands and remains unsatisfactorily addressed by the department,” O’Neill said.
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