PwC picks up £4.4m from Dome fiasco
Millennium Dome investigator PricewaterhouseCoopers has raked in £4.4m out of £6m shelled out by the ailing Greenwich attraction in accountancy fees, it has emerged in parliament.
Culture minister Janet Andersen revealed on Monday that the Big Five firm – who in August carried out a damning report into the New Millennium Experience Company’s finances – has taken the lion’s share of £6m so far paid out to accountancy firms.
She added that the final accountancy bill will be even higher, with more work to be done at the attraction due to close its doors at the end of the year.
Last month forensic accountants from PwC were called in to investigate 2,000 supplier contracts set up by NMEC, after earning £350,000 for the study into the mess surrounding NMEC’s books.
The National Audit Office is due next Thursday to publish its own report on the Dome.
Leaked sections of the NAO report last week revealed that culture secretary Chris Smith and eight members of the Millennium Commission ordered a senior civil servant to pay £76m to keep the Millennium Dome afloat after he had told them it was a waste of public money.
David James, the troubleshooter brought in to sort out the Dome’s financial position, ousted FD Neil Spence from the board and took over financial control along with John Darlington, the accountant brought in to unravel the financial chaos exposed in a report by PwC.
Fears flagged-up by the PwC report forced financier Nomura in September to pull the plug on its £105m deal to turn the dome into a working theme park.
A spokesman for the NMEC confirmed the figures.Links
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