As ASIC commences civil proceedings against former One.Tel managing directors Jodee Rich, Bradley Keeling and Mark Silbermann, public pressure to make directors and executives personally pick up the tab for company failures may be rising, according to a survey.

Approximately 80 percent of more than 600 respondents participating in a ZDNet Australia reader survey hold the opinion that company directors should be held responsible financially if companies that they helm collapse.

Throughout the year the public has been given many opportunities to ponder the question. The collapse of One.Tel particularly brought remuneration packages of executives under the media spotlight. Before the gaze of angry creditors, it was revealed that the company, struggling to meet union demands to pay employee entitlements, had given Rich and Keeling multi-million dollar bonuses less than 12 months prior to its demise.

Less high profile - perhaps for lack of players baring the surname Packer or Murdoch - was the case of Karl Suleman Enterprises. Karl Suleman, entrepreneur and major shareholder of Internet Service Provider, Froggy, came under scrutiny from the Australian Securities and Investment Commision (ASIC) when it was discovered he was operating a AU$60 million investment scheme without a licence.

Whilst in care of investor funds Suleman was able to support a lavish lifestyle that included two executive aircraft, a $5 million yacht and a collection of prestige cars.

Karl Suleman Enterprises went into voluntary administration last November leaving Froggy ISP pleading with creditors not to sell the operation. The Bankstown ISP employs around 90 staff according to company sources.

ASIC says it has noticed that the recent collapse of several large companies has lifted the profile of director's duties, but that it hasn't changed the way the commission approaches such matters.

-More high profile collapses highlights the importance of directors' duties and their responsibilities to shareholders, creditors and employees," said an ASIC spokesperson.

Grant Butler, managing director of Editor.com and author of a new book examining the dot-com boom Where's the loot?, believes that the question of executive liability needs to be considered carefully.

"At first glance, I'd say yes, directors should be held more accountable. But the problem is that if you made the laws tougher to catch the few bad eggs, you would ultimately discourage good people from becoming directors and running companies, which would in turn hurt the economy as a whole."

Butler says small companies currently have difficulty securing the services of talented board members because they can't afford the necessary directors' insurance.

"It's a bit like medicine; if the legal risks become too great, good people simply stop going into a profession and we all suffer," says Butler.

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