Reporting on our impact

We are committed to fostering a strong culture of quality and integrity that is core to our purpose.

Two years ago, we unveiled our landmark network strategy, The New Equation, which responds to fundamental changes in the world, including technological disruption, climate change and fractured politics.

The New Equation focuses on two interconnected needs that our clients face today and will continue to face in the future. The first is to build trust, which has never been more important, nor more difficult. The second is to deliver sustained outcomes in an environment where competition, the risk of disruption and societal expectations are greater than ever.

Our ability to help our clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes is grounded in our efforts to continually strive to improve the quality of our work, the standards that we apply across our network, and the values, ethics and codes of conduct that guide our behaviour.

In this Transparency Report you will find details of:

• Our financial performance, the revenues we have earned over the last 12 months, the investments that we continue to make in building the PwC of tomorrow and some of the taxes that we pay
• Our commitment to quality — including the results of our internal, audit quality inspections
• How we identify and manage the risks that we face across the world
• Our approach to governance and details of the standards that we expect all of our member firms to follow and rigorously apply

In addition, we continue to report on our progress against the 55 World Economic Forum (WEF) Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics. PwC worked with the WEF on the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics and we believe that reporting against as many of these metrics as possible is a key element of our commitment to transparency. These metrics give our stakeholders a detailed understanding of PwC’s impact on the planet, our people, the economy and society.

As a network, we strive to deliver work of the highest quality and to live and act in accordance with the standards we set ourselves and the values that are at the heart of PwC. However, we don’t always succeed. 

This year, it became apparent that significant breaches of confidentiality had occurred in PwC Australia. While these breaches occurred a number of years ago, the former leadership of PwC Australia had not taken appropriate responsibility for or action to investigate or remediate them since that time. These behaviours violated our standards and codes of conduct and are completely unacceptable. Under new leadership, PwC Australia has taken a number of steps to address its governance, culture and accountability in response to these issues.
 

I encourage you to read this Transparency Report and come back to us with your comments. While this is no time for complacency, we are proud of the progress we have made in being more open and transparent about our work, our achievements and the things we need to do better.

Bob Moritz,
Global Chair of PwC