Week in review: Feb 17 - 21
If you thought last week was a bad one for the Inland Revenue, think again. This week it only got worse. Also over the last five days there were interesting developments at Tenon, while Deloittes faced a new threat.
On Monday the Revenue admitted that more than 500 laptop and desktop computers had been lost or stolen by Inland Revenue staff over the past five years, piling pressure on under fire Revenue boss Sir Nick Montagu.
There was news of a new player entering the audit market as two former PricewaterhouseCoopers partners formed a ‘new concept’ audit firm, which will focus on helping companies meet the requirements of the Higgs’ report.
Tuesday a new report from the Treasury office expresses fresh concerns about Britain joining the European single currency in the near future.
Across the pond, William Donaldson was officially sworn in as the new chairman of the US Securities & Exchange Commission, replacing Harvey Pitt, who resigned in November.
Wednesday saw animal rights group SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) begin a major global campaign against Big Four firm Deloitte & Touche over its links with the controversial Huntingdon Life Sciences research company.
Meanwhile, Sir Nick Montagu, chairman of the Inland Revenue, will not resign from his post despite renewed and vigorous demands in the press, AccountancyAge.com learned.
On Thursday, Accountancy Age exlusively revealed that a large chunk of stock in troubled consolidator Tenon had been acquired by a major player in the founding of fellow listed accountancy firm Vantis.
And financial directors put the boot into Gordon Brown’s economic policy, after an Accountancy Age survey showed a massive and sudden drop in support for the ‘iron’ chancellor.
Friday saw FRS 17 hit the headlines again, as the controversial accounting standard left FTSE 100 companies with a £77bn aggregate pension deficit, almost equalling their combined profits.