Government Blacklisting Of City Accountants

EDM number 2443 in 1992-93, proposed by Alistair Darling on 18/10/1993.

That this House calls on the Government to make a clear statement of the criteria it applies in deciding whether or not its departments or other public sector bodies should do business with the partners of large City accounting firms; calls on the Government to make clear why it decided that Government departments were not to do business with certain named partners of the firm of Touche Ross; calls on the Government to indicate whether or not it intends to apply the same rules and logic in its dealings with partners of firms instructed by the late Robert Maxwell in the event of litigation arising; and further believes it would be inappropriate for the Government to continue to do business with those partners of Touche Ross involved on behalf of the Polly Peck creditors who are endeavouring to recover the ú440,000 donated to the Conservative party in order to avoid any question of a conflict of interest arising in that case; and finally believes that all firms of accountants doing business with the Government should be required to make a public declaration as to whether or not the firm, or any partners therein, make any sizeable donations to any political party.

This motion has been signed by a total of 63 MPs.