ARTHUR ANDERSON

One of the big American accounting and consulting firms, Arthur Anderson (AA) is a major worldwide force, with a good reputation. I have never dealt with them, except for Hydro-gate.

One of the key points raised early on by the PWU President, John Murphy, was "Why Arthur Anderson?" AA is/was not the usual auditors for Ontario Hydro, and it wasn’t obvious why they had been selected. POWER WORKERS UNION HELPS

The AA investigation ran better than the Internal Audit one (or so it seemed), and AA seemed keen to find and interview people. They appeared quite impressed with my story, and even suggested that I take it to the Globe & Mail. However, Larry Leonoff, Ontario Hydro Senior Legal Counsel, was apparently involved, which was not encouraging, as he had been involved in the Internal Audit cover-up. ARTHUR ANDERSON (AA), INTERNAL "MISMANAGEMENT, FRAUD AND CORRUPTION", LARRY LEONOFF

The Fraud Squad tells us that the AA report "failed to identify any of the irregularities as outlined in your allegations". However, AA were given a case that was "one step short of the line", and which was backed by three other witnesses. Somehow the feedback from the Fraud Squad didn’t fit the input. documents/fraud_Squad_1.gif

My lawyer’s comment: "Maybe they slipped them a few bucks. There’s graft everywhere." My personal guess is that any "editing" would be done in Ontario Hydro, where criminal fraud and cover-ups seem to be regular business.

After the Society showed me the Arthur Anderson report (March 17^th, 1998), I called AA to ask about report formats. My original interviewer (Howard Rosen) rapidly put me through to the "Office Managing partner" (CEO), called Bob Weiss. After lots of telephone tag, it appeared that all AA reports have names and signatures (no surprise). Arthur Anderson were obviously not happy to hear about a report "purporting to be written by Arthur Anderson".