When ethics are missing and consultants supply whatever a client wants them to say

It worries me when public institutions cut their staff to levels where inhouse expertise is often absent. I shudder to think how much is paid by CCC each year to consultants. I often wonder what value those consultants add to the institution.

CCHL has had a swarm of consultants crawling through their companies. As I wrote last week so far I have been declined access to these reports and how much they cost or what they recommended or what their original brief was. Until I get these reports and we analyse them we will not be able to understand just what the motivation was behind calling for them.

PWC in Australia breached ethical standards…

Last week the Institute of Chartered Accountants published their deliberations on how PWC in Australia had breached ethical standards. This case concerned a PWC partner who was advising the Government on potential tax changes. This partner, and his colleagues, informed key clients about these potential changes and they got identified by a vigilant journalist. I guess its fair enough to ask what other ethical misdeeds occurred which were not found out. If a person, or an organisation, has this slack an approach to ethics there will have possibly been many other examples.

I well remember in my first accounting office the senior partner giving me a lecture. He said, “Laddie we rise, and we fall, on our ethic. End of lecture”.

It is so easy to give in to temptation and breach ethics. I guess this now former partner of PWC, and his colleagues, will be adding to the holiday plans of already wealthy lawyers as they plead “not guilty” and add to the costs they have imposed on the state even higher.

Here’s what the Institute of Chartered Accountants wrote about in their disciplinary panel’s decision:

A. taxation partners at the PWC were aware that confidential knowledge gained from consultations with Treasury would be leveraged to market the PWC to a new client base and influence the structures of existing clients in a manner that may be perceived to circumvent the intent of the proposed legislation.

B. despite the existence of signed confidentiality agreements specifying that the information could not be shared without prior approval, some of the confidential information was shared with other PWC personnel who had not been authorised to receive the information and had not signed confidentiality agreements; and

C. information was further shared with existing clients and potential clients.

and

(1) the PWC is a large firm and could be perceived as a leader in the profession of accountancy.

(2) the PWC failed to inculcate within teams a speak up culture, address problems when they arose and could have done more to address the cultural issues and hold people accountable for their actions; and 

(3) the PWC, through a failure to have proper processes in place, and a failure of leadership and governance to address cultural deficiencies and hold others accountable for their actions, did not prevent misconduct from occurring, which has undermined trust in the firm and the profession more generally.

A few days ago, I was informed that PWC has tendered to run a Midwives training programme in NZ when it was tendered out. This has been undertaken by the Midwives profession for decades. What expertise does a firm which run an accounting and consulting business have with birthing?

Our society is obsessed with tendering everything out. Costs drive the exercise rather than ethics and sensible appointment of the right people leading our next generation’s education. I would be interested to know what the motivation of PWC was, other than making even more money.

I well remember attending a WEA lecture once where the speaker warned about us entering an era where those leading it knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. That was over 4 decades ago. We’ve got there I suspect.