'The group's black hole got bigger'

Semple was stymied by functional indigestion, McKie told CJ. He was amazed to discover that senior management didn't know their counterparts in other parts of the group.

"There was a complete lack of teamwork," said McKie. "On top of that, financial control was not centralised - a recipe for danger and an opportunity for mis-statements and financial inaccuracy." Adding to the risk, he discovered that Semple had jettisoned its central audit process.

"As a result, the group's black hole had simply got bigger, with a lot of costs being put [hidden] into work-in-progress," he said.

On arrival, McKie was shocked to discover that the group had no business development function. "No-one had looked for new leads for three years," he said.

The culture of working blindfolded in internal silos was so bad that when tendering for Railtrack work, Semple's rail division never shared the work won with its sister CCTV division because managers didn't know it existed - instead they gave the work to a CCTV competitor.

"Likewise, Semple's rail division never asked the group's overhead power subsidiary to quote for cabling work," he added. "There were no synergies at all."