Accounting and accountability - Corporate Culture

South Florida CEO, May, 2002 by Mike Seemuth

* About 100 South Florida employees of embattled Arthur Andersen staged a recent noon rally in Miami s financial district to plead for their threatened jobs, a noisy event that seemed more cathartic than constructive. Speaking from a makeshift podium on Brickell Avenue, over the cheers of co-workers and the honks of passing motorists, one Andersen employee after another protested the prosecution of the 89-year-old accounting firm.

"What is going to happen to us?" asked Cynthia Borders-Byrd, a senior audit manager at Andersen, her son Justin at her side. Another employee, John Vazquez, whose pregnant wife also works for the firm, said he wasn't sure their medical insurance would cover the maternity bills: "It's a very scary time for us." Scary, indeed. The US Department of Justice has accused Andersen of criminally shredding documents related to infamous former client Enron Corp., now in the biggest bankruptcy case in US history. The indictment has led more than 100 companies to fire Andersen as their outside auditor so far this year, including Kos Pharmaceuticals of Miami, World Fuel Services of Miami Springs and Wackenhut Corrections of Palm Beach Gardens. Speaking for many of his colleagues at the accounting firm, Miami tax partner Jose Lamela accused "the Department of Injustice" of causing Andersen's slide. But Andersen employees may be more inclined to blame top management as mass layoffs ensue at the firm. Consider Andersen's own research: The accounting firm commissioned a national survey of people who lost jobs last year and found that 71 percent blamed company leadership.