Luke Sayers in taxpayer bonanza after PwC “ban”

EXCLUSIVE

ANTHONY KLAN

Federal Government funds flowing to Sayers Group — owned by embattled former PwC boss  Luke Sayers — have more than doubled since the government’s “ban” on PwC.

Investigations show Federal contracts to Sayers Group have exploded 2.5-fold since the Department of Finance announced an “effective ban” on PwC Australia over the tax leaks scandal.

Sayers Group has been awarded $8.21 million in contracts since the PwC “ban” in May 2023, shows the Federal Government’s tender registry AusTender.

That’s 2.5-times the $3.27m Sayers Group was awarded in the 18 months before the PwC “ban”.

Last week Sayers resigned as president of Carlton Football club and “stood down” from Sayers Group over a lewd photo scandal.

The Klaxon’s revelations come as Greens Senator Barbara Pocock — who oversaw the Senate inquiry into consultancies — last week called for Sayers Group to be banned from Federal contracts until investigations into the PwC tax leaks scandal are complete.

“Any consulting firm led by Luke Sayers should be excluded from government contracting for at least five years and until all of the investigations into the PwC matter have been concluded and acted upon,” Senator Pockcock told David Ross of The Australian newspaper.

“While a range of investigations are still underway in relation to the tax leaks scandal in PwC, it is not in my view appropriate for Mr Sayers’ consultancy firm, or of course PwC itself, to be eligible for state, federal and territory government contacts”.

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Federal contracts to Sayers Group have soared 2.5 times since the PwC “ban”. Source: AusTender. Graphic: The Klaxon

In January 2023 it was revealed PwC had had taken secret government data — gleaned while providing advice on preventing multinationals avoiding Australian tax — and spruiked it to multinationals seeking to avoid Australian tax.

In May of that year a cache of internal PwC documents was released by the Senate inquiry into consultancies — of which Senator Pocock was a member — revealing PwC’s coordinated, international scheme seeking to monetise the top-secret Australian Government data.

PwC continues to refuse to provide officials with key information, including a report by law firm Linklaters which names at least six international PwC executives in connection to the scandal.

Sayers was PwC Australia CEO from 2012 to 2022, and so for all relevant times PwC was engaged in the illegal behaviour.

No one has been charged over the affair.

Sayers gives an interview as PwC Australia CEO. Source: Supplied

“If we can’t fall on our sword…then you’re not going to bridge that trust divide,” says Luke Sayers. Source: Supplied

Sayers founded Sayers Group immediately after leaving PwC in 2020.

Like PwC, Sayers Group is a “consultancy”, which makes millions of dollars from government contracts, often for services previously provided by public servants.

AusTender filings show the company has been given at least $14.59m in Federal contracts.

The actual figure is likely substantially higher, as only contracts worth $400,000 or more are disclosed by “corporate Commonwealth entities” .

In response to the PwC tax leaks scandal, the Department of Finance, on May 19, 2023, issued agencies a procurement notice, which was widely reported as an “effective ban” on PwC contracts.

Over the 18 months since then, Sayers Group was awarded 12 contracts, and contract extensions, totalling $8,156,425.

Eight are recorded as being for “computer services”.

Six, totalling $6,459,095, were from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).

The department is run by Secretary David Fredericks and is overseen by ministers Chris Bowen and Tanya Plibersek.

Federal payments to Sayers Group since PwC “ban”. Source: AusTender. Graphic: The Klaxon

PwC’s reputation has been savaged over the tax scandal, and a new firm, Scyne Advisory was created to house PwC partners and staffers who were involved in government contracts.

That allowed for Australian Government contracts to continue to those former PwC partners and staffers.

Many former PwC partners also moved to Sayers Group.

“It’s been reported that more than a dozen former PwC partners moved across to Sayers Group after Mr Sayers left PwC,” said Pocock.“Given that there has never been a comprehensive account of who did what at PwC in relation to the tax leaks scandal, we can’t be confidence that no one at Sayers Group was involved.”

Despite being PwC Australia’s CEO for all relevant times of the tax leaks affair, Sayers has claimed he had no knowledge of the matter.

That’s also despite the deputy boss of the Australian Taxation Office, Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn, giving sworn evidence to the Senate inquiry into consultancies that he personally met with Sayers, when he was PwC Australia CEO, and told him of the affair.

Federal payments to Sayers Group in 18 months before PwC “ban”. Source: AusTender. Graphic: The Klaxon

Sayers has drawn a new round of controversy, after a photo of a penis was posted from his Twitter/X account on January 8, tagging a female executive at health insurance giant Bupa, a major Carlton sponsor.

Sayers has repeatedly said he was “hacked”, but has provided no evidence to back the claim.

In a statement last week, Carlton said Sayers’ social media account had been “compromised”, yet similarly provided no evidence to back that claim.

The AFL’s Integrity Commission said the image was the work of “a person not being Mr Sayers”.

Carlton, Sayers and the AFL are refusing to say who posted the image.

Bupa had reportedly been “increasing pressure” on the Carlton Football Club over the incident, with “senior figures” demanding a “full accounting of the incident or an apology”.

Luke Sayers embroiled in a “penis photo scandal”. Source: The Klaxon

Last month Luke and Cate Sayers sold their family home.

The mansion, “Strathner”, in inner-Melbourne’s Hawthorn East, which the couple bought in 2005, sold for for around $16.5m.

Regarding the photo scandal, Sayers has repeatedly said he was “hacked”, but has provided no evidence to support the claim.

As exclusively revealed by The Klaxon last Thursday, Cate Sayers has quit from Inclusion Foundation, the charity she founded in 2009.

Luke Sayers remains as a director of the charity, which provides dancing classes for people with disabilities.

Cate Sayers made national headlines in 2022 when, weeks out from the federal election, it emerged she had appeared in political advertisements spruiking then Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for re-election.

It is illegal for charities to spruik politicians or political parties.

No action or penalties have been announced against Cate Sayers or Inclusion Foundation, including from the Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission (ACNC).

Both Luke and Cate Sayers have repeatedly refused to comment, despite being approached by The Klaxon over more than two years.

Cate Sayers departs Inclusion Foundation. How The Klaxon broke the story Thursday. Source: The Klaxon

Cate and Luke, who says he grew up in modest Melbourne suburbia, have become extremely wealthy on the back of Australian taxpayers.

Sayers was with PwC Australia from 1991, and was head of its taxation arm before becoming CEO in 2012. He founded Sayers Group immediately after leaving PwC in 2020.

As PwC CEO Sayers was paid $30.217m, his pay ranging from $2.967m in 2012-13 to a high of $4.502m in the 2019 financial year.

During that time PwC grew substantially, much of it on the back of governments outsourcing traditional public service roles to the private sector.

The previous Coalition government in 2015 introduced a cap on public service roles, which saw work handed to private “consultancies”, often at several times the cost.

Under the Coalition taxpayer funds flowing to the “Big Four” consultancies, including PwC, exploded almost five-fold, from $282m in 2012-23 to $1.4 billion in 2021-22, according to the Department of Finance.

It found outsourcing cost taxpayers $20.8 billion in just the 2021-22 financial year, and that consultants formed 53,900 full-time-equivalent jobs, one-third the size of the actual public service.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said he will again cut the public service if the Coalition wins power.

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Anthony Klan

Editor, The Klaxon