GAO spokesman Jeff Nelligan told FTW, “There is no link, no reason to recuse at all. When Mr. Walker was at Arthur Andersen he had nothing to do with Enron and he left well before all of this took place. He’s been gone for three plus years now.”
The possibility that Walker had no knowledge of Enron activities (Enron was Arthur Andersen’s second largest account paying Andersen some $52 million last year) is questionable given his position as a director and board member. And the statement that he was not at Andersen when Enron’s financial statements were being falsified is flatly contradicted by a 2001 Enron corporate filing with the SEC (form 8-K) which states that “Enron will restate its financial statements from 1997 to 2000 and the first and second quarters of 2001” to account for the fraudulent or grossly negligent financial statements given to the SEC by Enron executives and certified by Andersen.
Walker was on the board of Andersen for almost two years while Enron was cooking the books and Andersen was signing off on it.
Many of the Andersen connections and possible improprieties have been noted by Rep John Dingell (D), MI the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On December 5, 2001 Dingell wrote to Pitt with a series of detailed accounting questions that, when addressed in any one of eight announced Enron investigations, cannot help but draw Andersen deeper into the controversy.