Watchdog exposes Galliford’s £94m gaffe

Accounting errors by galliford try inflated its net assets by more than £94m.

the construction business’s mistakes were uncovered by the Financial Reporting council (FRc), the audit watchdog.

the FRc found galliford try overstated its revenues from the Aberdeen bypass project by £80m, which meant pre-tax profits were pumped up in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Shares in galliford also plunged 18.4pc as half-year results showed it was pushing back its target for a 2pc divisional profit margin to 2022. the FRc said it uncovered a raft of accounting errors, some dating back to 2015-16, as part of its probe.

‘the total effect of all the errors identified was to overstate net assets by £94.3m at June 30, 2018,’ according to the FRc.

But the watchdog said galliford had since corrected its mistakes.

David Rule, executive director of supervision at the FRc, said: ‘We will continue to hold companies to account.’

Bill Hocking, chief executive, said this had been ‘a period of significant change’ for the construction company.