Fired Arthur Andersen auditor David Duncan, who managed the Enron Corp. account in Houston, will be “the man of the hour” at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations’ hearing Thursday on the accounting firm’s shredding of Enron-related records, said Subcommittee Chairman James Greenwood (R-PA).

Duncan “[has] been a reluctant witness. We have sent a subpoena to him, and we’re still negotiating to get him to come before us. His lawyer has told us he expects to [invoke] the Fifth Amendment” right against self-incrimination,” Greenwood said Wednesday during “Washington Journal,” a call-in show on C-Span.

“We think that that’s a bit outrageous,” given that Duncan provided nearly five hours of testimony to congressional investigators last week, Greenwood said. “Our position is that he needs to come to the committee [today]. He needs to sit before us. We will ask him questions, and he can invoke the Fifth [Amendment] as he chooses.”

Duncan “has an obligation to the people to tell us what happened.” If he fails to appear, the subcommittee reserves the right to cite him for contempt of Congress, Greenwood said. Duncan’s attorney, Robert Giuffra, said his client would testify Thursday if he is offered immunity. However, the subcommittee has not indicated it would make such an offer.

The subcommittee also served subpoenas on two mid-level Andersen employees — attorney Nancy Temple, and risk manager Michael Odom. It decided not to subpoena Andersen Managing Partner and CEO Joseph F. Berardino. Instead, Andersen’s chief attorney in charge of accounting principles is expected to testify at the hearing.

A source for the committee described the subpoenas for Odom and Temple as “friendly,” and said they were issued so the two Andersen employees would be able to discuss their former client, Enron, without fear of a civil lawsuit.

On a related issue, Greenwood said there may be “some discussion” in Congress about a possible bailout for Enron investors who were drained of their 401(k) savings when Enron stock nose-dived to below $1 a share. But, he quickly added there will be “some trickiness” involved with the issue.

“It’s a tough call about [whether] we would justify reimbursing…an investment that went bad,” Greenwood said, adding that it could set a dangerous precedent.

Significantly, many of the people who called into the C-Span show were equally as angry, if not more so, with Capitol Hill lawmakers and the Bush administration for advocating policies and laws that they believe made it easy for Enron to perpetuate the fraud for so many years. They also questioned how members of Congress, many of whom accepted political contributions from Enron, could objectively investigate the energy trader. One caller thought an independent special prosecutor was needed.

Greenwood said the subcommittee’s hearing would be a preliminary step in a much broader probe being conducted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The full committee plans to hold two hearings into Enron’s financial failure next week — Jan. 29 and Jan. 30.

In Houston, meanwhile, attorneys representing several plaintiffs who want to preserve Enron-related documents by Andersen have proposed allowing Andersen to retain documents in exchange for full access to the files in question. The plaintiffs’ attorneys proposed the plan, which was being reviewed by Andersen on Wednesday. The proposal follows a request on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston, who is expected to rule on a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent any more destruction of Enron or Andersen documents.

According to plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Lerach, who represents Amalgamated Bank and the University of California Board of Regents’ pension fund, among others, said the proposed expansion would allow plaintiffs’ “lawyers and experts” to physically inspect four document storage areas. At least 30,000 documents related to the Enron case, including paper and computer tapes, are located in four depositories in Andersen offices in Houston, Chicago, New York City and Menlo Park, CA.

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