Week in review: 27 – 31 Jan

Week in review: 27 - 31 Jan

The week saw trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt announce reforms to the regulation of the profession, while a likely war with Iraq drew response from the Institute of Directors and there was bad news for Tenon.

Monday

MPs from the Conservative Party tabled a private members’ Bill which proposed that company boards be given the power to reduce lucrative payments to sacked directors.

And in a new report on a possible war with Iraq, the Institute of Directors claimed that if there was to be a war in the Gulf, a short conflict resulting in Saddam Hussein ousted from power would give a significant boost to the US economy.

On Tuesday, our parliamentary staff reported that two hundred and eleven cases of potential computer misuse by Inland Revenue staff were investigated last year and 205 individuals were disciplined.

On the topic of IT breaches, a survey by security consultant Defcom found that companies are deciding to protect their reputations instead of reporting hacking to the police.

Wednesday, the big story of the day was the publication of the DTI report on accountancy reforms. Trade secretary Patricia Hewitt announced a package of reforms that will see major restructuring to the regulation of accountants and bring the Financial Services Authority in to help identify risk areas.

On Thursday our top story on Accountancy Age was the news that the trustees who asked KPMG for more money to fill a £60m gap in an employee pension fund have been fired by the firm.

Things looked gloomy for accountancy consolidator Tenon as its share price plunged to a new low, just months before the former partners of the accountancy consolidator’s constituent firms get their first opportunity to sell their equity.

Friday saw chairmen of FTSE-100 companies register their concern over the proposed reforms included in the recent report on non-executive directors by Derek Higgs.

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