Even dead companies cost more money than expected.
That’s the word as costs associated with forensic accounting investigations into dormant automaker MG Rover are
spiraling out of control.
Financial publication Accountancy Age has
learned through the Freedom of Information Act that the tab for poking at MG Rover’s fiscal skeleton has totalled
more than £2.1 million to date (that’s just shy of $3.7 million ducketts), with no end in sight. For you
bean-counter types, that’s already more than £1m ($1.75m USD) over what was initially expected.
The
costs, detailed in a UK Department of Trade and Industry report, cover accounting efforts at the firm of BDO Stoy
Hayward through October of 2005. If the company’s billable hours trend remains consistent through the end
of calendar 2005, the investigation will have cost over £2.5m (almost $4.4m USD), and it could be mid-year before
another report is registered.