IN all the debates going on about the collapse of Carillion and the Government’s role in awarding contracts when concerns were being aired about its financial stability ("Questions come thick and fast as liquidators sift through wreckage", The Herald, January 16) one major factor is not being questioned. Carillion began its life as Tarmac in 1999 and in the next 18 years acquired Mowlem in 2006, Alfred McAlpine’s in 2008 and countless number of other service companies in the meantime.
This should stand as a lesson for the Competition and Markets Authority – that companies growing by acquisitions leads to this end result of a company so big that its failure has massive ramifications around the country in hospitals, schools, MoD and countless construction contracts.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Is there any chance of it being taken on board by government? Probably not.
Alex Dickson,
Inverkirkaig, Sutherland.
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