Consultants ‘enrichened by Carillion’

ANGRY MPs have accused consultancy firms of ‘merrily cashing cheques’ while Government contractor Carillion was on the brink of collapse.

It has emerged this weekend that the company handed over millions in fees to advisers in the six weeks leading up to its downfall on January 15.

Business advisory firm FTI Consulting was paid £4.2million, accountancy firm EY received £2.09 million and rival PwC was paid £1.2million.

Separately, PwC was paid £625,000 for advising the Cabinet Office as part of the Government’s contingency plans should Carillion go bust.

Carillion wrote cheques for more than £3million payable to consultants only days before it was forced into liquidation after the Government turned down its plea for an emergency bailout.

FTI Consulting was hired by five of Carillion’s banks – including HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group – to evaluate the request for a £140million loan in September 2017.

The banks then retained FTI to complete a detailed review of Carillion’s finances although the firm itself picked up the bill.

The review remains unpublished but a draft version, due to be released today, shows FTI was fully aware of the huge scale of the problems.

A joint statement from MPs Rachel Reeves and Frank Field, co-chairs of a committee probing the collapse, said consulting giants ‘can always be relied upon to emerge enrichened from any crisis’. They added: ‘As everything collapsed around them they were merrily cashing cheques.’