The fact that accountancy firm Grant Thornton is to part company with its CEO, Sacha Romanovitch, has made headline news. No doubt that is in part because she was the first woman to head a major accountancy firm in the UK. But it may be as much to do with the agenda of a small group of partners who briefed very heavily against her in the media, suggesting her plans for the firm were “socialist'.
What was this evil she unleashed in the firm? It was an apparent belief that profit must be earned for a purpose. And that there should be fixed pay differentials for senior staff so that internal inequality did not becoming damaging. And that all staff should partake in profit sharing. This was the socialism to which there was objection.
I am sure, of course, that there is much more than this going on. Grant Thornton was fined heavily for breaches of professional ethics recently because some partners seemed unaware of the need to comply with rules on this issue. And it did sign the Patisserie Valerie accounts that now look as if they might have been a work of fiction. Clearly there are issues in this firm.
But the ousting of Romanovitch (for it seems certain that is what it is, not least because of the short duration of her appointment) by what appears to be a hard right coterie of partners who hold their staff in contempt and who place their own short-term profit interests above all else at this moment in accounting history when the Big 4 are under challenge for their own pursuit of self-interest as of paramount significance is the real issue here.
What the message appears to be is that society, staff, the profession, and reform are irrelevant. The lining of the pocket is all that matters. It is hard to interpret otherwise.
In the end we may come to thank these Neanderthals for their intervention: what they are showing is that there is no solution to the problem of the Big 4 inside the accountancy and audit professions. That is timely. It is what Andrew Tyrie and John Kingman need to note. The party for the likes of these partners should be over. The gravy train should end. They may well have made the most serious error. But at least they have shown us what many have long suspected, which is that self-interested greed rules. And that rules the profession as it stands out from running a service that has to operate in the public interest.
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I don’t quite know why I bothered to view the article but, yes, I spotted the dreaded word ‘socialist’ and posted on FB with “WTF”.
Being a woman probably didn’t help her cause.
I regret to say that it almost certainly did not
Do you think it was the fact she was a woman which led to her appointment? Or is it only likely to be relevant when she’s shown the door?
Many, including the FT, seem to think the latter
The appointment suggests she was the best candidate
A majority appointed
A minority have driven her out, it seems
I was going to mention this article here too.
I read it more positively because the person who tried to change things was (1) a senior accountant (amazing!) and (2) a woman (even better – hooray!). It signified hope to me.
Romanovitch should be knighted. That’s what i would do. For services to humanity and accounting.
But you are right – it does show what is going on in corporate accounting which is just a feeding trough for greedy unprincipled people.
‘Socialist’ – my arse.
Fare and sensible business sense? Oh yes. Definitely.
As I said – there is hope.
According to recent findings in Genetics, we all have a trace of Neanderthal in us. Other findings are that they seem to have been a much better organised and skilled humanoid species than we have assumed in the past. Perhaps they have something to tell us that we have lost in recent millennia.
I knew I was being unfair to them….I should have added that as a footnote
Demetrius beat me to it.
Richard, you have been told before about this casual species-ist use of language. 🙂
What saddens me is that John McDonnell should have been on the blower to this lady by now and I’ll bet it hasn’t even crossed his mind.
Yes, indeed; why insult the Neanderthals? We badly need a new term for belligerent people incapable of adaptation or a capacity to learn from experience. Hmmm….
What about Brexiteer?
how do you end the gravy train of external audit when that part of the business makes very little money?
Make it separate
Then. A full price has to be charged
Problem solved
Audit people should be civil servants and able to get quick investigations when they can’t properly sign off accounts. Jail time would be good for such as the half-baked patisserie job.
Not Neanderthal as pointed out above but a modern human invention:
“A system of government thus created, wherein a small pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people.”
= PATHOCRACY
From the book ‘Political Ponerology’
The Scientific Study of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes.
By Dr. Andrzej M. Åobaczewski
Oh !
I like Pathocracy.
Mmm.