Michael Capellas, who is also chief executive officer, made this declaration after the details of an internal investigations into the accounting fraud at WorldCom were made public today.

Capellas said a significant number of management, policy and structural changes had been proactively implemented, adding that no one associated with past wrongdoings at the company continued to work at MCI.

'These reports are yet another important step in putting the past behind us as we remain on a fast track to emerge from Chapter 11 protection this fall. We know that the world is watching us and will scrutinize our performance - we welcome that oversight. We want the public to know that the 55,000 MCI employees who work hard everyday to serve our 20 million customers want to be the standard bearers for good governance.'