MP's have launched a new joint inquiry into the collapse of the UK's second biggest construction firm, Carillion.

Earlier this month, the industry services company fell into administration with a reported £5 billion of liabilities and just £29 million left in cash.

The Work and Pensions and Business Committee, as well as the Energy and Industrial Strategy Committees have now called on a series of former directors of Carillion to explain their stewardship of the company. The Insolvency Service, which is investigating the company's descent into bankruptcy, will also be questioned.

In addition, the Financial Reporting Council will be questioned over the audit of the company's accounts by KPMG, which signed off as a going concern in Spring 2017.

Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, said: "Another day, another company goes bust hot on the heels of a clean bill of health from a Big Four financial services firm.

"The particularly nasty twist in this now grimly familiar tale is the mountain of debt and giant pension deficit this public services contractor leaves in the wreckage of its collapse– with an accompanying massive hit to the public purse.


"It must also be time now for the auditors who cosily signed off this disaster-in-the-making as a 'going concern' less than a year ago to begin to account for themselves."

Rachel Reeves MP, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee said: "In the wake of the BHS scandal, Carillion has the hallmarks of another corporate governance failure with directors asleep at the wheel while the business went off a cliff, in this case leaving jobs, pensions and public services under threat and a host of suppliers out of pocket.

"How is it that so many warning signs were ignored by the company and the Government? What were the Carillion board and senior management doing to address the spiralling problems at the company? Why are the regulatory bodies stepping in only after Carillion's collapse?

"As a Committee we will also want to explore the executive pay arrangements at Carillion, the potential cost to the taxpayer of the insolvency, and the role of both directors and non-executive directors in the company's collapse."

Dates of the various witness appearances are as follows;

Tuesday 30 January 2018, location TBC

• The Financial Reporting Council

• The Insolvency Service

• Chris Martin, Managing Director, Independent Trustee Services Ltd (Member of Carillion DB Pension Scheme Trustee Board since 8 January)

• Robin Ellison, Chair of Trustees of Carillion DB Pension Scheme

Tuesday, 06 February 2018, location TBC

• Richard Howson, Chief Executive, December 2012 – July 2017

• Phillip Green, Chairman, May 2014 – Monday 15 January 2018

• Richard Adam, Finance Director, April 2007 – December 2016

• Zafar Khan, Finance Director, January 2017 – September 2017

• Keith Cochrane, Interim Chief Executive, July 2017 – Monday 15 January 2018

• Emma Mercer, Finance Director September, 2017 - Monday 15 January 2018

(LM)