Abstract

Silverstone Industries Ltd commenced almost 50 years ago as a registered charitable organisation. Over the years it evolved into a ‘best practice’ ‘social enterprise’ that provided vocational training and employment to over 600 persons with a disability. The company demonstrated how with good training and support disabled persons could do a lot more than low‐skill level tasks traditionally associated with ‘sheltered workshops’.

For the financial year ending 2008, the company reported a record turnover of $31M, a trading surplus of over $1M and a net asset value of $12M. It was a thriving successful business. In March 2009 and at the height of the global financial crisis, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Silverstone Industries reported to the board of directors he “...no longer had any confidence in the integrity of the financial figures, information or reports emanating from the Chief Financial Officer or his department”. The CEO had become a whistle‐blower. The board appointed a special audit firm to investigate and report back. A ‘window’ of four weeks was provided…..

This workshop will discuss the case study and explore what can be learned from the situation.

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The abstract of this conference paper may be accessed from the conference website here

The Author:

Dr Stephen Treloar

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