Crikey! PWC's Ethical Problems Down Under Shed Light on Larger Issue

The hot news in the Accounting web this week is the resignation of PWC Australia's CEO, Tom Seymour, after an ongoing ethics scandal. I know most people in the US don't keep up with Accounting news (let alone Australian Accounting news), so here's the TLDR version:

PWC Tax Partner, Peter Collins, shared confidential information from tax authorities with his clients. Despite Mr. Collins signing a confidentiality agreement, e-mails released from an investigation by the Australian Tax Practitioners Board show that PWC intended to utilize access to the confidential information for marketing purposes. Collins subsequently had his license revoked. CEO Tom Seymour vehemently involved that he had any knowledge of this situation, until it came out that he had been included on several e-mail chains.

The blowback has been swift, with some regulators demanding that PWC be banned from doing business with the Australian government all-together. It will be interesting to see how this scandal unfolds, and it's broader implications for the larger consulting industry. The issue is - scandals like this are far from uncommon in the consulting industry.

I recently read Mariana Mazzucato's thought-provoking book, The Big Con, which cites numerous examples of large consultancies utilizing their advanced regulatory knowledge for commercial advantage, among other ethical concerns from large consultancies and CPA firms, Other criticisms include the lack of internal capacity being built up by businesses and government agencies due to an overreliance on consulting services, and companies using consulting firms as political cover for decisions they've already made such as conducting layoffs.

I have written in the past for significant need for change in the public accounting industry, in order to attract new talent. In my previous post I mainly spoke about company culture and work-life balance. But the fact of the matter is that major scandals like this have major impact on an industry's image. For the most part, people do not want to enter a profession where they will feel compelled to engage in unethical acts in order to grow business.

I am interested to hear my network's thoughts on this. What are some ways public accounting firms can discourage this sort of behavior?