Internal Auditors report

Question

After posting on here several weeks ago and getting useful advice, I contacted our Internal Auditor and asked why my parish council had not seen her report. She replied promptly with copies of her report for the last 3 years. The reports were critical of the Council including for example, no VAT had been reclaimed for 5+ years amounting to £5,000. We are only a small parish so that is about as much as our precept!

I circulated the information to all my fellow councilors. At the next council meeting I asked the chairman why councilors had not previously seen the Auditors reports. The clerk answered by stating that no-one had asked, yet she has previously stated there was nothing to report. I reminded the council that the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities requires us to publish the Auditors report on our website. Three weeks later, the Auditors report has still has not been published. The draft minutes do not mention the auditors report, the failure to reclaim VAT or the fact that we have taken £5,000 from our council taxpayers that we didn't need to.It will be the end of September before the minutes are corrected. Surely our taxpayers have a right to know about this?

At the aforementioned  meeting (20th July), the council approved the accounts. According to the AGAR guidance notes, the Public Rights period should then start asap. However the Public Rights period started on 14th June and ended on 23rd July, just 3 days after the approval of the accounts. Can this be right?

Thank you all those who have contributed to related posts that I have read.

Answer 1

Oh dear it sounds as though the Parish Council is in slight disaray and I'm not sure where you should begin although its good to see you as a Councillor are concerned and questioning matters. I see the Clerk has notified the External auditors that the accounts were not finalised and therefore the AGAR was completed after the required date ~ what was the External Auditors response I wonder ? Personally I think that the Council ,as a whole, needs to understand more about legislation.I believe there are set dates for completion of AGAR for which you would need an Internal Audit and accounts approved by your Council, the dates for public rights to inspect would follow that not before they have been approved. The dates should include the first 14 days of July.

Comments

Thank you Soucieux
I'm not sure where to begin either!
We councillors have had little or no training and none about legislation so informed advice is always welcome. I think I will try and find out what the External auditors response was next.

Answer 2

This year, a council local to me had the same issue, though in this case, it was the chairman who was muddying the waters not the clerk.  Obviously, it matters not whether the auditor's report was 'hidden'; the fact is that all the councillors are still responsible.
The External Auditor was so furious with these shenanigans that she ordered (yes, ordered) that all the councillors (no matter if they had done the training already or not) should undergo, or undergo again, training in how their council functioned in finances. The county association sent along its training officer to hold the sessions on site!