FDs feel heat over 'spin'
One in ten finance directors have come under pressure to put a positive spin on their company's financial results, according to this week's Accountancy Age/ Reed Accountancy Personnel Big Question.
Link: Bonus threat to UK FDs
The results show a startling 16% of FDs feel they have been forced to talk up company results.
One FD confessed that he was ‘always under pressure to do so’, while another admitted to showing results in a more ‘positive’ light to the company bank manger but ‘never to falsify figures’.
Companies place pressure on their auditors too, according to one FD.
‘I have had experience of companies trying to put their auditors under pressure to overlook overstated asset values,’ said Chris Holehouse, FD of Dolphin Head.Others pointed to the expectations an FD faces. It’s ‘part of an FD’s job,’ said one respondent.
Some 76% said they had not come under pressure to put a gloss on results. But respondents confessed they knew people who had or that there were ‘occasional pressures’.
Echo International Health Services FD Ravis Somasundram admitted there was ‘gentle pressure to talk things up’. Another FD said: ‘It depends on who’s asking!’