ABSTRACT
Who was to blame for Carillion’s spectacular failure? This chapter discusses the role of board members. All the directors were apparently well qualified. Can a non-executive director who already has one or more full-time jobs really devote the time necessary to carry out the non-executive duties? Was incompetence the problem? Were two executive directors and several non-executive directors enough to monitor effectively? The chapter also discusses the role of Deloitte, acting as internal auditor, and KPMG, as external auditor. When a view as to future value had to be taken, the auditors always took the management’s view, even though there were known problems and uncertainties. We conclude that when there are two widely differing valuations, the external auditors should not just blindly adopt the highest one.
