A review of the accounts of the failed car maker MG Rover has raised "a number of questions" that the government may want to pursue, the independent panel behind it said today.

Following the car manufacturer's collapse in April, the then secretary of state for trade and industry, Patricia Hewitt, asked the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to conduct a review of the accounts of MG Rover and its associated companies for the past five years.

The FRC, an independent regulator, said its financial reporting panel (FRRP) had finished the review and the findings had been passed on to Ms Hewitt's successor at the department of trade and industry (DTI), Alan Johnson.

"The FRRP's report does raise a number of questions relating to the affairs of MG Rover and its associated companies which the FRRP believes may be relevant for the DTI to consider," the FRC said.

"It will be for the secretary of state to decide what action the DTI should take following receipt of the FRRP's report."

Rover called in the administrators in April with the loss of 5,000 jobs after it failed to reach an agreement on a joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) of China.

The remit of the FRRP's investigation was limited and FRC executives stressed in April that the review should not be regarded as a detailed examination of any alleged financial irregularities at Rover. The FRRP was asked purely to consider whether the company's accounts were properly prepared, not to rule on its business practices.

That has not deterred union leaders and the shadow trade and industry secretary, David Willetts, from asking Mr Johnson to publish the report.

Last Friday, Mr Willetts wrote to Mr Johnson urging that the FRRP's report be made public. A spokesman for Mr Willetts said: "It is essential that all the workers at MG Rover know exactly what has gone on."

A group of Midlands businessmen known as the Phoenix four, led by John Towers, bought Rover from the German company BMW for £10 in 2001.

A Guardian investigation in April reported that the four received a dowry of cash and assets of £1.4bn from BMW, and that an apparent mismatch between identified cash inflows and traceable cash outflows came to £554m.

Although Rover went bust, Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH), the private company set up by the Phoenix four to control Rover, remains solvent. PVH has delivered £40m in financial rewards to the Phoenix four and Rover's chief executive.