Lehman chicanery is tip of the iceberg

Good article by Prem Sikka on failures of accountancy, a major tax justice issue. The article is well worth reading, and this comment underneath is worth noting too:

"Over the years I have been involved in audits and have also been part of the teams auditing major banks. Iefore each audit we are briefed on the firm's strategy. Everyone knows that if anyone upsets the client company's directors and loses the job, they will have to look for employment elsewhere. We have to work within tight time budgets and no one wants to be stuck with an unusual or awkward items for too long.

If you did, the the partners think you have not been very efficient and the effect of that comes out through lack of promotion and/or salary increase. So everyone tries to avoid awkward looking items. I have never been been on any audit where the partners concerned have ever talked about our duties to the public. I will soon be leaving my job with one of the Big Four firms. I am amazed at why the media and the public has so much confidence in auditing."