MPs chairing the joint inquiry into the collapse of outsourcer Carillion have lambasted the company's former directors as "delusional", highlighting that recovery plans drafted shortly before the insolvency paid little consideration to pensioners.
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee and Work and Pensions Committee published Carillion's final business plan on Tuesday, after hearing evidence from chief executives and finance directors.
The plan highlighted that the group had "become too complex with an overly short-term focus, weak operational risk management and too many distractions outside of our 'core'".
It also noted the company's inability to keep up with the size and complexity of its service contracts, poor timeliness and even "insufficient understanding of, and adherence to, contract requirements".
However, the committees said this honest if damning appraisal was at odds with what it was told by former directors at Tuesday's inquiry hearing.
In a statement, co-chairs Rachel Reeves and Frank Field said: “This morning a series of delusional characters maintained that everything was hunky dory until it all went suddenly and unforeseeably wrong. We heard variously that this was the fault of the Bank of England, the foreign exchange markets, advisers, Brexit, the snap election, investors, suppliers, the construction industry, the business culture of the Middle East and professional designers of concrete beams."
They added: "Everything we have seen points the fingers in another direction – to the people who built a giant company on sand in a desperate dash for cash.”
The business plan released by the committees also revealed that directors hoped to offload Carillion's pension liabilities, valued at more than £2.3bn on a full buyout basis, via a regulated apportionment arrangement.
