Five former bosses in charge of MG Rover are to be banned from managing companies on the back of an independent inquiry into the collapse of the firm, the Government has said.
Despite the company going into administration owing nearly £1.3 billion in 2005, the inquiry found that executives of parent company Phoenix Venture Holdings took around £42 million in pay and pensions, an amount it called "unreasonably large".
Action will now be taken to prevent the executives from holding office or managing other companies in the future.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson also asked the Financial Reporting Council to review the report, saying: "We are determined to learn any lessons we can to ensure greater transparency about the impact of decisions which directors are making and the state of the companies they are running."
Responding to the claims, the executives called the report "a witch hunt against us and a whitewash for the government".
In a statement, published in full by the Telegraph , they wrote: "The Government has spent more money on this deeply flawed report than it ever put up to help MG Rover. MG Rover received less than £5 million in subsidy during our tenure as directors."
They also said that the Government's "offer of £6 million after the company collapsed" was "too little too late and reflected the Department of Trade and Industry's lack of understanding of the process".
Source: MG Rover bosses 'should not manage again' | News Centre | Admiral ...
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