BOSSES at collapsed outsourcing giant Carillion were “stuffing their mouths with gold” and dodging workers’ demands while the firm was run into the ground, according to report by MPs published today.

The joint report by the Commons business and work & pensions committees says bosses should face the possibility of corporate disqualification.

It also attacks the government for not holding Carillion bosses to account and enforcing corporate regulation. Thousands of people were put out of work after the company went into liquidation in January.

Work and pensions committee chair Frank Field said it was “a disgraceful example of how much of our capitalism is allowed to operate, waved through by a cosy club of auditors, conflicted at every turn.

“Government urgently needs to come to Parliament with radical reforms to our creaking system of corporate accountability.

“British industry is too important to be left in the hands of the likes of the shysters at the top of Carillion.”

The report also calls for the breaking up of Britain’s big four accountancy firms — KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and EY — after their failures were exposed by Carillion’s collapse.

MPs say that the auditors’ tangled web of involvement in Carillion’s woes shows the need for a “more competitive market” and called on the Competition & Markets Authority to investigate further.

Business committee chair Rachel Reeves condemned the “parasitical relationship” between accountancy firms and companies they oversee.

She said: “The big four accountancy firms are prioritising their own profits ahead of good governance at the companies they are supposed to be putting under the microscope.”