This week (Friday 6
September) marks 600 days since the collapse of Carillion on 15 January 2018
when the construction and outsourcing giant was forced into compulsory
liquidation with liabilities of £7 billion and thousands of workers lost their
jobs.
Yet no action has been
taken against the company’s directors or senior managers responsible for its
collapse.
As a result Unite, the
UK and Ireland’s largest union has criticised the government for a ‘business as
normal approach’ and the failure of action to be taken against the guilty.
This is despite
several regulators launching investigations into the circumstances of the
company’s collapse.
The Official Regulator
is undertaking an investigation into whether there was any criminal wrongdoing
by Carillion’s directors prior to the company’s collapse. The investigation is
not expected to be completed until early 2021.
Meanwhile the
Financial Reporting Council is undertaking several investigations into the
company’s financial reporting and the accuracy of its auditing processes. No
date has been given to when this investigation will be concluded.
At the same time
Carillion’s two flagship hospital projects the Royal Liverpool hospital and the
Midland Metropolitan hospital are years behind schedule with work not yet
restarted or only just getting underway.
The Royal Liverpool
hospital was originally due to be completed by March 2017 and was officially 85
per cent complete when Carillion collapsed. However since then it has emerged
that there were serious structural problems with the hospital’s concrete beams
and the cladding on the building was a fire risk.
Work on the hospital
only began to restart in July and the local NHS Trust is no longer prepared to
provide an estimate of a completion date or when the hospital will be
operational.
The Midland
Metropolitan hospital being built in Smethwick in the West Midlands was half
built when Carillion collapsed. The hospital was due to be completed by October
2018. The contract to renew construction work remains unsigned although it is
expected that Balfour Beatty will undertake the work. The hospital will not be
finished before late 2021.
Workers who lost their
jobs following Carillion’s collapse are also seeking justice for the failure of
the company to consult them before making them redundant. Unite is representing
around 220 of these workers and the employment tribunal case which is being
vigorously defended by the Official Receiver is scheduled to be heard in late
2020.
Unite assistant
general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “As we approach 600 days since the
collapse of Carillion it is totally apparent the government has failed to learn
any lessons from this debacle.
“The guilty directors
and senior managers remain unpunished and are free to pursue new lucrative
roles while the innocent workers have a long battle ahead of them in their
battle to secure compensation in the courts.
“Flagship hospital
projects are years away from being completed, meanwhile patients and staff have
been left to struggle on in facilities that are no longer fit for purpose.
“Government ministers
have clearly washed their hands of the whole mess and now pretend it is no
longer their problem.
“It is quite clear
that their needs to be a root and branch reform of company law to prevent
similar collapses in the future and the creation of effective regulators with
real teeth who are able and willing to tackle bandit capitalism.”
