Last week’s verdict from a parliamentary committee on the collapse of construction and outsourcing company Carillion – “recklessness, hubris and greed” – marks the failure not just of a model for providing public services but of the system by which the businesses we all rely on are kept financially honest.
Some of the MPs’ strongest words were reserved for the accountants that should have acted as the company’s financial watchdogs. The auditors from KPMG, earning around £1.5m a year for vouching that Carillion’s accounts gave a “true and fair view” of its business, were in fact rubber-stamping figures that “misrepresented the reality of the business”. In March 2017, the firm expressed no concern over reported profits of £150m even though just four months…
