Corporate governance - Kid gloves for white collars unacceptable

THERE is an alarming note of special pleading about the claim by leading businessman Sean Fitzpatrick, chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, that Ireland’s regulatory regime was close to resembling “corporate McCarthyism”.

Whether he likes it or not, this sort of comment is bound to create the perception that Mr Fitzpatrick wants entrepreneurs and businessmen who create wealth to be given kid-glove treatment under the regulatory system.

In the real world, if the existing regulatory system is to command respect, there should be no question of a softly-softly policy in relation to any group, no matter how rich or powerful they may be.

Not alone does Mr Fitzpatrick think the system has gone “too far”, he also alleges that in the way entrepreneurs are treated here, there is an “apparent presumption of guilt” by regulators.

While he admits “there will always be some bad eggs in the basket” he goes on to argue that Irish business does not have a history of abuse.

No doubt, the man and woman in the street will remind him of the Ansbacher scandal. Or the probe into the carve-up of the Johnston Mooney and O’Brien site at leafy Ballsbridge in Dublin. Not to mention the continuing investigations into tax evasion?

In Mr Fitzpatrick’s eyes, wealth creators should be rewarded and admired and not subjected to “levels of scrutiny which convicted criminals would rightly find intrusive”.

But the reality is that a substantial number of investigations into company executives suspected of corporate wrongdoing will have to be dropped because there are not enough people working at the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

And today, another 150 people will be named and shamed by the Revenue Commissioners for tax evasion.

To be fair to Mr Fitzpatrick, he believes wrongdoers should be punished and that when things go wrong they should be put right.

But his warning against “shackling” or “suffocating” entrepreneurs, is sure to be interpreted as supporting the nod-and-wink syndrome that has blighted the image of business in a country that has been notoriously reluctant to crack down on white collar crime.