Australian Tax Office stays schtum on whether HPE outages report is complete

It was due 'towards the end of March' and almost a week later … tumbleweeds

The PwC review on just what went wrong with the Australian Taxation Office's HPE storage is … well we can't say exactly what it is.

And that's odd because commissioner of taxation Chris Jordan said in a speech delivered on March 16th that “This review will report back to me around the end of March.”

And here we are on April 6th, several working days past that deadline and the Tax Office has precisely nothing to say on the matter.

In the last week The Register has three times asked the Tax Office whether the review has been delivered and/or considered. We're also keen to know when or if it will be released to the public, to see the expected redactions.

But all the Tax Office has to say on the matter is that it has nothing to say on the matter … for now.

Paranoia and rumour flow quickly into vacuums so Vulture South cannot help itself conjuring scenarios in which the report is not merely late, but late because the incidents were so complex the end of March deadline wasn't feasible. That guess is supported by the ATO's rejection of our freedom of information request on the outages on grounds the effort it would require would impair delivery of the PWC review.

Or perhaps the review contains damning information about the Tax Office, HPE, HPE's channel, or all three parties?

If that stuff isn't redacted, we'll let you know once the report lands. ®