来源：《每日电讯报》
日期：2021年2月6日
With a bit of luck, Britain could be ready for a vaccine-fuelled economic boom later this year. With a Brexit deal signed and a new Business Secretary committed to a “thriving private sector”, it is no wonder that the Bank of England is increasingly optimistic about a dramatic bounce-back when Britain finally reopens.
如果运气好的话，英国可能会在今年晚些时候迎来疫苗推动的经济繁荣。随着英国脱欧协议的签署，以及新任商务大臣致力于“蓬勃发展的私营部门”，难怪英国央行对英国最终重新开放后的大幅反弹越来越乐观。
Yet instead of encouraging entrepreneurship and risk-taking, Kwasi Kwarteng is suggesting a reform which would freeze corporate Britain in its tracks. He proposes making company directors personally liable for the accuracy of their financial statements, a move guaranteed to turn executives into risk-averse bureaucrats. Instead of seeking to grow their companies, or set up new ones, businessmen would live in fear of an error ruining their careers.
然而，Kwarteng并没有鼓励创业和冒险精神，而是建议进行一项会阻碍英国公司发展的改革。他建议让公司董事对财务报表的准确性承担个人责任，此举肯定会让高管们变成厌恶风险的官僚。商人们不会寻求发展自己的公司，也不会建立新的公司，而是生活在一个错误就会毁掉自己事业的恐惧中。
It is true that there have been too many corporate scandals, fuelling a toxic distrust of capitalism. But the answer is to enforce existing rules better, and to shake up the audit market, long dominated by overly comfortable accountancy giants. The tiny minority of dishonest directors should face the full force of the law, and auditing should become the preserve of stand-alone businesses, with no conflicts of interest, rather than integrated advisory firms.
的确，企业丑闻太多，助长了人们对资本主义的不信任。但答案是更好地执行现有法规，并对审计市场进行改革，长期以来，审计市场一直由活得过于舒适的会计巨头主导。少数不诚实的董事应该受到法律的全面制裁，审计应该成为独立企业的专属领域，没有利益冲突，而不是一体化咨询公司的部分业务。
Much of British business, especially the large listed companies, is already tied down in red tape, jargon and a safety-first culture. Corporate governance rules have made most company statements overly lengthy and largely incomprehensible, including to insiders. If directors are held personally responsible for the accuracy of every financial number produced by their employees, they will focus more on avoiding lawsuits than on running their companies. The unintended consequences of imposing strict liability on directors would be numerous.
许多英国企业，尤其是大型上市公司，已经被繁文缛节、行话和安全至上的文化所束缚。公司治理规则使得大多数公司声明过于冗长，基本上难以理解，包括对内部人士而言。如果董事们要为他们员工提供的每个财务数据的准确性承担个人责任，他们将更多地关注避免诉讼，而不是经营自己的公司。将严格责任强加给董事，会产生大量意想不到的后果。
The demand for lawyers and internal auditors would boom, and genuine investment would fall. CEO pay could be forced up as executives demand “danger money”. The talent pool would narrow even further, and talent will flee overseas. The UK would never rival Silicon Valley: the economy would instead remain stuck in eurozone-style permanent stagnation, defeating one of the objects of Brexit.
对律师和内部审计人员的需求将会激增，而真正的投资将会下降。由于高管们承担的风险变高，首席执行官的薪酬可能会被迫提高。人才储备将进一步缩小，人才将流向海外。英国永远无法与硅谷竞争：相反，英国经济将继续陷入欧元区式的永久停滞，挫败英国脱欧的目标之一。