Business secretary Peter Mandelson has called upon the former bosses of carmaker Rover MG to apologise for milking the profits from the business following the news that they took pay and pensions worth £42million, shared by five executives.
The government has said that the former directors known as the ‘Phoenix Four‘ plus chief executive Kevin Howe, may be banned from running other companies.
Despite the fraudulent claims the Serious Fraud Office does not intend to pursue a criminal investigation into the collapse of the company that saw 6,500 lose their jobs.
The full report on the scandal is contained in an 830 page document and although the financial remuneration is at the centre of the report it also publishes the following findings:
- Mr Beale bought software to “clean” data from his personal computer, a day after investigators were appointed, “despite being aware that we would want to image and then review the contents of his computer for documents relevant to our investigation”.
- Mr Stephenson paid more than £1.6m to a consultant he had a “personal relationship” with.
- Executives had exaggerated in statements to MPs the personal financial risks they were taking.
- There was evidence of a questionable briefing to the press by an adviser to former Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
The former directors have hit back at the claims calling the report a witch hunt and government whitewash. They issued a joint statement to deny any wrong doing and added:
“Our remuneration was not the reason for the collapse. The real reason is the government bungled the last chance to save MG Rover,” said Mr Howe, chairman John Towers, ex-vice-chairman Nick Stephenson, Peter Beale and John Edwards.
I can’t really understand how an apology is going to help anything, 6,500 have lost their jobs and five executives walk away with forty two million between them. It was bad enough watching Fred Goodwin smiling his smarmy way out of RBS after making sure that he was set up for life, can the government just stand by and watch again?
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