Heald, D. (1989) A financial autopsy on the CEGB: lessons for privatization. Energy Policy, 17(4), pp. 337-350. (doi: 10.1016/0301-4215(89)90005-0)
Full text not currently available from Enlighten.
Abstract
This article examines the financial performance of the CEGB during the 1980s, the period for which inflation-adjusted current cost accounting (CCA) accounts are available. The CEGB is shown to have made imaginative efforts to produce a workable system of CCA asset valuation. However, the system has not been sufficiently transparent and too much discretion, without the onus to explain and to justify, has been available. Moreover, reported CCA results have been compromised by dubious practices in the area of provision and reserve accounting. The privatized generators which will emerge from the ashes of the CEGB will be much more reluctant to reveal commercial and technical information which would be useful to either potential competitors or predators. Accounting data will become much less comparable, unless regulators enforce either strict historic cost (HC) principles or directly supervise inflation-adjustment.
Item Type: | Articles |
---|---|
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Heald, Professor David |
Authors: | Heald, D. |
College/School: | College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance |
Journal Name: | Energy Policy |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
ISSN: | 0301-4215 |
ISSN (Online): | 1873-6777 |
Published Online: | 25 June 2003 |
University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record