{"id":46115,"date":"2018-08-31T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=46115"},"modified":"2019-01-30T12:53:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T12:53:09","slug":"public-inquiry-carillion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/","title":{"rendered":"Unite calls for public inquiry into Carillion \u2018Ponzi-like\u2019 tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s largest union, Unite, has urged a public inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, following a recent dispatches investigation which aired on Channel 4<\/h2>\n

In the programme senior business analysts compared the Carillion<\/a> operation to that of a Ponzi Scheme, saying that it was possibly insolvent in 2016 but continued to trade for over a year.<\/p>\n

The dispatches investigation also highlighted the \u2018aggressive accounting\u2019 practices said to have taken place during Richard Adam\u2019s tenure as Finance Director. Allegedly, accountants who forecast losses on major schemes were instructed to re-work the numbers to show only profitable projects.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s approach to contract awards has also come under scrutiny. In June, Unite was among the many organisations voicing their concern at the government\u2019s decision to award a 12-year contract to outsource the Ministry of Defence\u2019s firefighter service to Capita, despite the company having a financial health score of three out of 10.<\/p>\n

Unite Assistant General Secretary Gail Cartmail said: \u201cAs information continues to emerge about the collapse of Carillion, the need for a public inquiry grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThousands of workers have lost their jobs and companies in the supply chain have gone to the wall, though no fault of their own and yet no one has been held responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than learn from its huge errors which contributed to Carillion\u2019s collapse<\/a> the government is acting as though it is business as normal. There is a growing concern that the government\u2019s inaction could result in further collapses of outsourcing giants resulting yet again with workers losing their jobs and the taxpayer picking up the tab.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Carillion collapsed into liquidation it was employing 19,000 people, with a further 35,000 people employed by its sub-contractors and across its supply chain.<\/p>\n

The company went into liquidation with \u00a37bn of liabilities and only \u00a325m in the bank. The cost of closing the company exceeds \u00a350m in fees charged by auditors PwC alone. According to Unite<\/a>, the taxpayer will have to foot the bill for both the auditors fees and the cost of making thousands of staff redundant.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s largest union, Unite, has urged a public inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, following a recent dispatches investigation which aired on Channel 4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[824,283,276,17722],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-planning-construction-news","7":"tag-carillion","8":"tag-finance","9":"tag-government","10":"tag-unite-the-union"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnite calls for public inquiry into Carillion \u2018Ponzi-like\u2019 tactics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UK\u2019s largest union, Unite, has urged a public inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, following a recent dispatches investigation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unite calls for public inquiry into Carillion \u2018Ponzi-like\u2019 tactics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The UK\u2019s largest union, Unite, has urged a public inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, following a recent dispatches investigation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-31T09:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-30T12:53:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Unite-calls-for-public-inquiry-into-Carillion-\u2018Ponzi-like\u2019-tactics.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steph Blundell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steph Blundell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb\"},\"headline\":\"Unite calls for public inquiry into Carillion \u2018Ponzi-like\u2019 tactics\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-31T09:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-30T12:53:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/public-inquiry-carillion\/46115\/\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Carillion\",\"Financing\",\"Government Policy\",\"Unite - 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