APS Commission considers enhancing guidance for staff moving to private sector after PwC tax leak scandal

Movement between the federal public sector and private firms engaged by the government for labour and services is not new, but the commission will revisit its guidance as questions on confidentiality and conflicts of interest rise to the surface.

The commission's current advice gives agency heads some mechanisms to restrict dealings between current APS employees and former employees.

Where reasonable, restraint clauses in an employee's contract can mean public servants agree not to work for certain employers for a period after leaving the APS.

Contracts can also rule out the employment of former APS employees who were involved in the tender process.

The commission's guidelines also detail steps which can be taken to manage conflicts of interest before an APS employee leaves the service, such as temporary movement to different work area.

"Individual agencies can supplement this advice through the development of agency-specific policies and initiatives which are tailored to their specific needs," a spokesperson for the agency said.

"The APSC is currently considering whether the existing guidance material needs to be enhanced."

The commission announced the move after PwC Australia's former head of international tax, Peter Collins, was in January revealed to have shared privileged information on the government's multinational tax avoidance strategy with others in the firm, following a confidential consultation with Treasury.

The information was then passed on to clients of PwC, prompting the Treasury Department to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police to consider a criminal investigation in May.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock, a member of a Senate committee inquiring into consulting services, said current and former public servants have been raising the APS' "revolving door" with her since she began lobbying the government to apply harsher measures to PwC.

"It's definitely an area of concern, because what we have seen evidence on is quite a significant revolving door that extends not just to ... public servants, but of course also at the most senior level of the public service as well as amongst politicians."

Several current agency heads were also previously engaged in jobs with Big Four firms, including Agriculture secretary Andrew Metcalfe, Employment and Workplace Relations secretary Natalie James, Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan and the newly appointed Health secretary Blair Comley.

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Stemming the flow of talent from the APS into the private sector will come back to rebuilding the sector's capability, Senator Pocock said.

"The really important long-term, structural challenge is to rebuild the public sector to create interesting careers and a more robust public service."

Improving conditions for employees, such as paid parental leave, through ongoing APS-wide bargaining will be crucial, she said.

"What we have to do is pull that work back into the public sector to create the interesting jobs that are not contract management, but work doing."

The Albanese government has committed to reforming the public sector, including by reducing its reliance on contractors.

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