Enron: The Fallout: Woes Set Off Review Of Accounting Rules --- Officials in China, U.K., Focus on Bookkeeping

• Published in: The Wall Street journal Asia
• Main Author: By Steve Liesman and Marc Champion
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Victoria, Hong Kong Dow Jones & Company Inc 05.02.2002
• Subjects: Accounting irregularities; Accounting procedures; Auditors; Scandals
• ISSN: 0377-9920

In Britain, ripples from the Enron bankruptcy claimed a first casualty Friday, when Lord John Wakeham, a former U.K. energy minister and accountant who served on Enron's audit committee, stepped down temporarily from his job as head of Britain's press complaints commission. Lord Wakeham has said he will remain on leave until he has cleared his name in the U.S. investigation into Enron. As in the U.S., the question of political donations from Enron has been raised in the U.K., with the opposition Conservative Party charging that GBP 38,000 ($53,876) in Enron donations to the ruling Labour Party in 1997 to 2000 may have influenced the government to end a moratorium on the construction of gas-fired power stations. So far, the Conservatives have come up with no evidence to support their claim of impropriety and have had to concede that they accepted #25,000 in Enron donations as well. While the political storm over Enron in the U.K. may blow over, there probably will be lasting effects on British accounting regulations. Howard Davies, the head of Britain's newly consolidated Financial Services Authority, says he has set up an internal inquiry to look into lessons that the U.K. could learn from the collapse of Enron. Interviewed at the World Economic Forum in New York, Mr. Davies said plans for a review of Britain's accounting rules were already in place as a result of an earlier, domestic accountancy scandal. But, he said, "Enron has given that process a big kick."