UK Government Ministers will be urged to justify the slow progress of the inquiry into the collapse of MG Rover, which has now cost GBP8.4m and run for almost two years, the Financial Times newspaper reports.
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MPs are voicing alarm at the lack of an apparent end to the inquiry into the carmaker’s demise, despite the millions of pounds racked up in costs.
Peter Luff, the Conservative chairman of the Commons trade and industry committee, last night tabled a parliamentary question asking the government when it expected the inquiry to be concluded. “My committee is concerned about this,” Mr Luff said.
New figures released to the Financial Times show the costs to the Department of Trade and Industry totalled GBP8.4m at the end of last month. The bulk of the payment – fees of GBP6.3m plus value added tax of £1.1m – has been made to BDO Stoy Hayward, the forensic accountancy firm.
The DTI said when it set up the inquiry in June 2005 it did not expect the inspectors to report before mid-2006 “at the earliest”.
The government enjoyed all-party support for its decision to order an official Companies Act inquiry into MG Rover, which went into administration in April 2005 at the cost of 6,000 jobs.
The legislation gives the two inquiry inspectors – Guy Newey QC and Gervase MacGregor, a senior partner at BDO Story Hayward – considerable powers, including the ability to seize documents and summon witnesses.
