O'Reilly speaks up for corporate America

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday July 25, 2002 17:32 by kahootz

Ireland's best known businessman Tony O'Reilly has expressed strong confidence in the propriety of corporate America, despite the current wave of business and accounting scandals there.

O'Reilly, the executive chairman of Independent Newspapers, said that although there were cases of fraud in companies like Enron, the vast majority of American companies were extremely well run. He you said investors could rely with certainty that most commpanies accounts are well grounded and well audited.

O'Reilly also said he was not convinced that laws needed to be changed to give the US securities and exchange commission (SEC) more powers.

He said US auditing firms like KPMG and Ernst and Young were extremely good companies, and said he felt sorry for Arthur Andersen, where one office rather than the whole company had been shown to act improperly.

O'Reilly expressed concern that people will be less and less willing to serve as non-executive directors of companies, because the fees they are paid will not justify the amount of work they may now have to put in.

O'Reilly was speaking after chairing the annual general meeting of Waterford Wedgewood in Dublin.

(from rte.ie)