Senators reject Enron excuses

A bipartisan report from a US Senate committee has rejected claims from Enron directors that they knew nothing about the company's questionable accounting practices.
The permanent sub-committee on investigations, whose staff began collecting evidence immediately after the energy firm crashed seven months ago, has blamed the failures squarely on the board.

"The board witnessed numerous indications of questionable practices by Enron management over several years but chose to ignore them," the report says.

Among the board members last year was Lord Wakeham, the former Conservative cabinet minister.

Enron's collapse - the US's largest bankruptcy - helped spark the crisis of confidence in the corporate sector which led to a worldwide share price slide.

Amid increasingly acrimonious relations between Wash ington and the business elite, Senate majority leader Tom Daschle called for Harvey Pitt to resign as chairman of the securities and exchange commission, the US watchdog.

The Democrat accused Mr Pitt of having "too cosy a relationship" with the industry his agency regulates, including meeting accountants he used to represent in his capacity as a lawyer "on many occasions before issuing regulation".

Another Democrat, Carl Levin, rejected claims by Enron board members that they were "out of the loop", saying: "The evidence shows that the board knowingly went along with Enron's high-risk accounting and off-the-books deceptions."

He was supported by senior Republican Susan Collins, who said directors' failings "clearly contributed" to Enron's demise.

Enron's lawyer, Robert Bennett, condemned the report as "grossly unfair" and "old hat". He said: "We would expect nothing less in this frenzy that is taking place on Capitol Hill. I only wish the Congress would apply the same standards to their own conduct."