Dome earns PwC £4.4m.

Millennium Dome investigator PricewaterhouseCoopers has raked in £4.4m out of £6m shelled out by the ailing Greenwich attraction in accountancy fees, it emerged this week. Culture minister Janet Andersen revealed the Big Five firm, which in August produced a damning report into the New Millennium Experience Company’s finances, has taken the lion’s share of £6m paid so far to accountancy firms. Andersen added the final accountancy bill will be higher, with more work to be done at the attraction due to close its doors at the end of the year. Last month PwC forensic accountants were called in to investigate 2,000 plus supplier contracts set up by the NMEC. The firm earned £350,000 for its study into the mess surrounding NMEC’s books alone. The National Audit Office is due next Thursday to publish its own report on the Dome. Last month leaked sections of the NAO report claimed 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 the PwC report. 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. Smith ordered Dome bailout www.accountancyage.com/Public+Services/1112563.