1 in 5 companies audited by 'old firm' employee

Almost one in five FTSE 100 companies are audited by the “old firm” of a board director, lending weight to accusations that a cosy relationship exists between some businesses and their accountants.

Links between large companies and their auditors have been under scrutiny since the Enron scandal in the United States when it was revealed that a number of senior figures in the disgraced company’s finance department were former staff of its auditor, Andersen.