Johnson warns against complacency
Minister for competition and markets, Melanie Johnson, today warned accountants and auditors not to rule out UK disasters similar to Enron and WorldCom.
Addressing the ICAEW’s annual conference in London, Johnson told the industry not to rule out similar fiascos and added accountants face a great challenge to restore the reputation of the industry.
‘We can’t rule out a US situation here and we need to learn some valuable lessons. The government, partners, regulators and the accountancy profession all need to work closely together to rebuild confidence.’
She added that the government had confidence in regulators and institutes’ ability to repair the damage and suggested that drastic actions may not be needed in the UK.
‘I don’t think we need to introduce more rules necessarily and we won’t be moving down the flawed US path. But we face serious issues and we must ensure our framework is robust enough to cope,’ she said.
Johnson also revealed the government was monitoring every possibility in a bid to discover whether any benefits can be brought to the current framework.
