Finance considering whether to transfer former PwC contracts to Scyne Advisory

PwC Australia and Allegro Funds signed a binding long-form sales agreement last week. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of October.

The big four firm announced it would divest its government advisory services in June, following intense scrutiny over an alleged breach of confidential government information by a former partner at the firm.

A parliamentary inquiry established to probe the matter and the government's broader use of consultancies branded it a "calculated breach of trust" in an interim report earlier this year.

Appearing before the committee on Wednesday, Department of Finance deputy secretary Andrew Jaggers said the government was still considering whether existing contracts would be transferred to Scyne Advisory.

Finance, which oversees the federal government's approach to procurement, will also consider whether Scyne Advisory can replace PwC on the Management Advisory Services Panel. The panel pools consultancies, which departments are required to procure from.

Mr Jaggers said where companies were sold there would usually be a "reasonably automatic novation of contracts to that new entity", but the department had taken a different approach to this matter.

"Because of the issues with the ethical standing of PwC, with the Tax Practitioner's Board matter and all of the responses since, we have commenced a thorough examination of Scyne to determine whether Scyne is a reasonable organisation for those contracts to be novated to, and for it to be on the panel in replacement of PwC," Mr Jaggers told the committee.

"In relation to this PwC to Scyne transition, we are doing that examination of whether Scyne is a entity that's reasonable to be contracted with.

"That work isn't complete."

That process has included examining Scyne Advisory's proposed governance structures, to determine "the appropriateness of us contracting them, with respect to Scyne's, I guess, ethical soundness", Mr Jaggers told the committee.

The department has been asking questions about the new firm's personnel, policies and any potential conflicts of interest.

It has also asked for the new business to respond to a cultural report into PwC, conducted by Ziggy Switkowski, and expected to be published on Wednesday.

The Department of Finance received the report last week, prompting outrage from Labor senator Deborah O'Neill, who said the committee had still not seen the report as of Wednesday morning.

"Mr Jaggers you're in a very privileged position, they didn't give it to the ATO, didn't give it to the TPB [Tax Practitioner's Board], they didn't give it to us," Senator O'Neill said.

"Very interesting selection of who they provide it to. I mean it's important for your work, but seriously, I restate my comment from yesterday: The contempt continues from PwC for public transparency."

The Tax Practitioner's Board in January deregistered PwC Australia's former head of international tax, Peter-John Collins, from practicing as a tax agent for two years, after its investigation alleged he had shared confidential Treasury information on Australia's multinational tax avoidance strategy.

In May, emails tabled in Parliament revealed 63 people had allegedly received the confidential information, causing Treasury to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police to consider the commencement of a criminal investigation.