Former Enron chairman Mr Kenneth Lay has resigned from the company's board as two congressional committees vowed to force him to come before their panels to testify on the energy giant's collapse.
But when one of the committees tried to serve a subpoena on Mr Lay, his attorney said he does not know where Mr Lay is and could not accept the subpoena, a spokeswoman for the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said yesterday.
Mr Lay had been scheduled to appear before the panels yesterday but pulled out the day before on the advice of his attorney.
As the congressional process went ahead without Mr Lay, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Mr Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, called for a special prosecutor to examine the energy trading company's fall, saying he had no confidence in the Justice Department investigation.
"We've got an Enron government," Mr Hollings said at a news conference. "They got help from the secretary of the Army, the secretary of treasury, go right on down, the secretary of energy. They got help all last year trying to save them, at every turn," Mr Hollings said.
Mr Hollings has scheduled a 9:30 a.m. (2.30 Irish time) meeting today to discuss the issuance of a subpoena to force Mr Lay's appearance.
The Republican National Committee denounced Mr Hollings's comments as "blatant partisanship" and the White House noted Enron had made campaign donations to both political parties. Mr Bush has denied helping Enron as it fell apart last year.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee yesterday voted unanimously to authorise Mr Lay's subpoena and pledged to act on it at once.