NATIONAL: MPs criticise Carillion directors for not listening to concerns

New information published by the Work and Pensions and Business Select Committees revealed that Emma Mercer was raising concerns about the accounts she found just six weeks into her job last year as financial director of construction services.

Minutes of board meetings described her as ‘whistleblowing’, said the MPs, adding that her revelations threw up serious questions, not least for Carillion’s auditors, KPMG.

Before going into liquidation, Carillion was in charge of numerous contracts at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham.

Mrs Mercer’s concerns triggered a review of contracts, although the board’s initial decision to have an independent element was later reconsidered.

Frank Field, who chairs the Work and Pensions Committee, said: ‘Emma Mercer took just six weeks to spot and pull the thread that began the entire company unravelling.

‘That the next chief financial officer had to go through whistle blowing procedures to get her concerns about accounting irregularities taken seriously by the Carillion board is extraordinary.

‘So too is that the board’s response was to reject an independent review and get KPMG, their pet rubber-stampers, to mark their own homework.’