Meet the author: Bob Wylie explores the collapse of Carillion in Bandit Capitalism

When the Financial Times published its list of the year’s best economic books, Bob Wylie wasn’t sure whether he wanted to open the article.

The former investigations correspondent for BBC’s Reporting Scotland had spent two years working on his book Bandit Capitalism, which tells the story of the collapse of construction and outsourcing company Carillion.

He had high hopes to be named on the list, and reluctantly clicked on the link to find out if his luck was in.

“I was going down the headlines and I saw books of the year. I thought, ‘am I going to open that?’ because if I did and the book wasn’t on the list it would ruin my day,” he admitted.

“I opened it and there it was sitting at number seven. I couldn’t believe it!

“I was brought up in Pollok and my old man was a bricklayer. That day I was reflecting on the fact that one of the best economic books of the year for the Financial Times was a long way from Househillwood Road in Pollok!”

Carillion’s collapse is considered one of the greatest financial scandals of modern times.

Its losses and liabilities ran to over £7 billion, with a £2 billion hole in the workers’ pension fund for which the UK taxpayer footed the bill.

Bandit Capitalism details how directors looted the company for their own gain, and also examines the conduct of the auditors, regulators and government.

The FT’s Martin Wolf labelled the book an “excoriating book on the corruption that can lurk within contemporary capitalism”.

It came about after Bob heard first-hand accounts of workers’ experiences while working as a communications director with the Unite union.

Having ghost written the 2016 autobiography of Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar for publishers Birlinn, he approached them suggesting that the “horror story” of Carillion would be a tale worth telling.

With sponsorship from the GMB Union, the project came together, with Bob digging deep into masses of data, testimonies and jaw-dropping numbers.

To tell the Carillion story, he interviewed a range of people from company insiders and workers to the MPs involved in the Parliamentary Inquiry into the collapse.

He also spoke to ordinary people whose lives were changed by it, including the small business owners that were among the subcontractors to bear the brunt of the losses.

The research also involved poring over pages and pages of minutes from the inquiry.

“When people asked me how the book was going, I’d always say ‘it seemed a good idea at the time!'” Bob laughed.

“It was murder, the amount of material that’s available to get your head round was just extraordinary. Every time you got one reference there’d be another three or four things tied on.

“There was a Carillion inquiry, which was a joint enquiry between the work and pensions and business committees.

“It produced by May 2018 a report which gave indication of where they’d taken evidence, but nobody had bothered to go through the board minutes. I went through every single one that was published and was able to construct who said what when, and the lies that were told.”

While the book focuses on Carillion, Bob says the story is just one example of how things work in a system in desperate need of change.

And the coronavirus crisis has only brought the issues into sharper focus.

He said: “I’m just a journalist, I have not run £20m construction contracts, but all my life in journalism, particularly in 14 years at the BBC, I was an investigations correspondent.

“I know how to dig, and where to go to get the facts and when the sums don’t add up.

“We’ve put together a story about Carillion which, in itself, informs the public about what’s going on but also hopefully exists as an account or as a theoretical indictment of what’s going on today and the fact that something needs to be done.”

He added: “Whether we’ve got hopes for reform or not remains open because there is no real sign that deficit financing, creative accounting and short-termism will change. The whole of British industry is constructed around the maximisation of shareholder value.

“The chief executives’ money is linked to that. If you promote the share price and dividend you get a kick in the salary and share options. Short-termism is the alter at which all top British executives worship.”

Bandit Capitalism by Bob Wylie, https://birlinn.co.uk/product/bandit-capitalism/