Senators grill current and former PwC executives about their pay and how the head of the controversial tax division ended up CEO. Footage: ParlView
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00:00This was very damaging to the firm.
00:03He was a firm with good protocols, good protocols, proper advice on how to do things, and having
00:10to go and talk to clients and say they didn't come to us, like I was very proud of the firm
00:18but I wasn't proud of the firm at that particular moment.
00:21You weren't just general counsel, you were also a partner.
00:24Did it not cross your mind, Mr Burroughs, that you should have disclosed to the Senate
00:31and this committee that you were in receipt of an additional $1.2 million, which seems
00:39to put you in a position where you are the person carrying a very high level of potential
00:44conflict of interest, serving two masters, both PwC Australia and PwC International?
00:52Senator, when I answered your question previously, I believed that you were interested in my
00:57role as CEO of PwC Australia.
01:00I do have another role for PwC Network, for which I receive remuneration, and that was
01:06fully disclosed in the questions that you've asked me recently.
01:10But those protocols were not being followed in the tax division under the leadership of
01:14whom?
01:15Mr Seymour.
01:16Who then went on to become what?
01:19No, he became the CEO.
01:21So that seems like some incredible reward.
01:25I believed that the board would say at that point that Mr Seymour should not proceed as
01:36the CEO, and I was asked to join another call the next day.
01:43I think that meeting was on the Friday, on the Saturday, and on the Saturday there was
01:50a discussion with the chairman and Mr Sayers, at the end of which—and I gave some legal
01:57advice in it, so I'll stop there on that, I'll have to give it in camera—at the end
02:01of which Mr Sayers said that he would speak to Mr Seymour, and I understood and events
02:10showed that after that Mr Seymour continued to go forward for election.
02:18It was run by the legal team.
02:20That said, what the document production process did demonstrate is that in certain instances
02:26a limited number of partners in the tax group had not followed those protocols correctly.
02:34That did happen under my leadership.
02:37It certainly wasn't something I condoned or was aware of at the time, but it did happen
02:42when I was the leader, and I accept accountability as leader.
02:45It happened on my watch.
02:46PwC provides a particular insight into a really documented and now very public failure point.
02:55It's every chance that this could be operating in other contexts and not disclosed.
02:58It is a case study, but it's a case study of an entity that is so fundamentally important
03:04to the proper functioning of our markets.
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