PwC Does Sweetheart Deal For Vietnam Headhunting Services


You have to wonder whose sweetheart Tieu Yen Trinh is? (She is a Manager.) The audit firms are getting as wily as the financial services companies in setting up offshore joint ventures to obscure who really is in charge, who really gets the profits, who really pays the taxes, who the clients really are.

Oh, I forgot! It’s the audit firms that are advising the financial companies on complex SIVs and SPAs.

And has has been discussed before specifically about PwC, alliances are funny things and this doesn’t look like it’s moving too far from under the watchful eye, strong influence and potentially profitable benefit of PwC Vietnam.

According to Lan Lydall, Managing Director of PwC Vietnam, the recruitment division has been bringing high profit and making a great contribution to the company’s success. However, PwC needs to shut down its labour supply service as of October 31.

Did someone blow the whistle on an independence conflict? Is there an SEC investigation of PwC Vietnam doing some headhunting for a US audit client? There had to be a precipitating action for them to make this change so suddenly. They’re not that strategic with their own business.

But what about all the other places they provide HR and other services that are potentially in conflict if provided for an SEC registered client? Are they moving these off to JVs using insiders too?

We’ve also talked about how PwC, via its UK arm, has gone full speed ahead trying to drive manufacturing business to Vietnam. That’s manufacturers, not service sector businesses, because, as everyone knows:

The incomes of Vietnamese people remain relatively low, …As a result, Vietnam’s score in terms of the attractiveness in the service sector is lower than the manufacturing index…

US auditor giant to transfer services to local JV

Leading global auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers has transferred its Vietnam head hunting services to a local Australian joint venture as new US regulations do not allow auditors to operate in both sectors.

The TalentNet Joint-Stock Corporation officially received the transfer from PwC last week, said Tieu Yen Trinh, TalentNet’s chief executive officer.

Trinh added that the joint venture also received personnel, technology and clients from PwC. PwC has halted its human resources services as U.S auditing regulations have become more strict, she said.

Trinh, former head of PwC Vietnam’s head hunting service department, said auditors which providing HR services create a “conflict of interest.”

The corporation has not paid for the transfer, but Trinh said Monday that the two companies were “working with each other to reach some conditions for the transfer.” She refused to give further details about the conditions.

Besides head hunting services, Trinh says TalentNet will also provide other services that PwC is now unable to supply due to the new regulations.