The federal health department is taking a fresh look at contracts worth $25 million with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) check on any conflicts of interest.
A Senate estimates committee heard on Friday the department had 12 contracts with the major consultancy firm.
“We are actively engaging with PwC at the moment to identify any of those potential areas (of conflicts),” department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said.
“They assure us that they have processes to manage these things, but we are going through every one of our contracts.”
The committee heard some of the contracts were entered into this year after the Tax Practitioners Board took action against former PwC partner Peter Collins over his sharing of confidential government briefings on multinational tax reform with partners and clients.
The Australian Federal Police is investigating the matter.
Prof Murphy revealed his department had engaged in “very frank discussions” with the new acting PwC CEO Kristin Stubbins.
“She is very aware ... they have a clear obligation to convince us and regain trust,” he said.
“They’re going to continue to provide us with layers of information which we will reality check - we won’t take anything at face value - and we will seek to reassure ourselves that all potential conflicts have been managed and are being managed.”
The committee heard one of the key concerns was whether PwC partners and staff had shared information about health department programs with the company’s clients in the sector, particularly in aged care.
A similar problem relating to PwC’s engagement with Treasury led to the police investigation.
The committee was also told no PwC staff involved in health department projects over the past two years were among those who were now “under scrutiny” or one of the nine stood-aside partners.
Department chief operating officer Charles Wann said he expected PwC’s advice on managing conflict of interest and other issues to be provided by the end of next week.
Wann said part of the consideration of value for taxpayers’ money was “ethical conduct”.
Any new contracts would be covered by new criteria issued by the finance department, he said.
The ethics and integrity of consulting services will come under the spotlight on Wednesday at the second public hearing of a Senate inquiry that kicked off in March.
It is not yet known whether any PwC representatives will be asked to front the hearing.
The company said in a written submission: “All our people are required to take mandatory training in respect of conflict management and confidentiality, and individually confirm each year that they are aware of our policies, code of conduct and the consequences of breaching them”.
The submission also included an unreserved apology from now-resigned CEO Tom Seymour over the Collins matter.
The firm received an estimated $537m in contracts from the federal government over the past two years, with the defence department the biggest user of its services.
