Pressure mounts for institute to deliver on Durgan probe
ICAEW council members are calling for the key review of the institute's internal controls – prompted by the Graham Durgan fiasco – to be delivered next week
Durgan elected to withdraw his name from the ICAEW presidency, after a
company in which he has a majority stake was made preferred supplier for a
training contract. In a bizarre twist, Accountancy Age also understands
there was an attempt to put forward Durgan’s name for the presidency just a week
after he withdrew his candidacy.
Council members are due to meet for the institute’s annual conference next
week, but there is no sign of when current president Ian Morris will deliver the
review. Council members are looking to see who will be held responsible, and
what steps are taken to ‘make sure it never happens again’.
‘We don’t know when the tender process started and finished, there are no
precise details. When were contracts signed, why was the risk not flagged up
then?’ asked one council member.
Morris is looking at the scandal surrounding the awarding of preferred
supplier status to Emile Woolf International.
It has emerged that leading up to last week’s council meeting there was an
attempt to muster support for Durgan to reapply for the presidency, yet a
nomination failed to materialise. Durgan was not present at the meeting.
‘There was some rumour of this, suggestions that Graham may be willing to
stand,’ a council member.
An ICAEW spokesman said it ‘was not institute policy to comment on
confidential council matters’. Durgan could not be contacted.
