Andersen Officials to Testify for House Panel

A House subcommittee will require top officials from Andersen to testify Thursday about the firm’s destruction of Enron Corp.-related documents last fall, after the firm knew Enron was being investigated by federal regulators.

“We will invite them and if they decline the invitation we will subpoena them,” Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee, said Saturday.

Andersen’s chief executive, Joseph Berardino--or a designee, such as the company’s general counsel, Andrew Pincus--is at the top of the list of invitees, Johnson said. Also on the list are Nancy Temple, an Andersen attorney who wrote a memo Nov. 10 telling Andersen employees to preserve documents, and David Duncan, who was Andersen’s lead auditor on the Enron account until last week. Andersen fired Duncan for what it said was the improper destruction of documents.

The subcommittee also is considering inviting Michael Odom, another Andersen auditor on the Enron account, Johnson said.