Electo asks to see missing cheque book at Annual Inspection appointment - Clerk refuses

Question

I attended an appointment made with the clerk to inspect the annual accounts of the parish council at our village hall. It became apparent early on that the Clerk had provided a cheque book that covered only from March- October 2023, but not the cheque book that followed on from October 2023. When I asked to inspect the cheque book covering November 2023-April 2024 the Clerk said she had left it at home so it wasn't avaialble for me to inspect. I asked her to make a new appointment for me to inspect the cheque book in alongside all the other accounts and related documents etc as per the legal requirements. The Clerk point blank refused to provide me with another appointment within the pubished period for inspection of annual accounts or indeed at all. She claimed that I had no need or right to inspect the cheque books as they were not part of the documents related to the council's accounts. She said that she found the business of giving up her time to give one elector access to the accounts etc annoying, she had to give up her time, the council had to pay the villlage hall committee (£12 an hour) from public funds for the appointment and the community wouldn't want any more money spent just to allow me to see a cheque book and anyway i was the only person who ever wanted to inspect the accounts in our parish and she was not prepared to give up any more of her time to make arrangements for a second appiointment. The council chairman (who was also at the inspection) agreed with the Clerk, made rude and abusive comments about me and said that I had no right to demand a second inspection session and the Clerk would not be providing another appointment nor would she allow me to have sight of the missing cheque book or anything else. I'd had my opportunity and if I wasn't satisfied that was basically too bad. He claimed that there was no such thing as a second appointment for the anjual accounts. I asked for a ruling to be sought from our ALC and our Internal Auditor. The Clerk and Chairman refused this request, stating that it was nothing to do with either and that was that. I pointed out that as it was a legal requirement under an Act of Parliament I had every right to inspect all documents, books etc relatng to the annual accounts and if the Clerk who is also the RFO blocked my legal right I could resort to lawa and report the Clerk to the police. I was then accused of threatening the Clerk and abusing her position on the council. If Clerk/RFO and council chairman block an elector's lawful right to inspect all the relevant books, documents etc during the set period (24 June to 5 August in our case) who can that elector turn to? It is interesting to note that the Clerk only published the dates electors could inspect the annual accounts on the council website on 24 June, but didn't pin it onto the three village noticeboards until 5 July and claimed when asked why the delay,that she didn't have to publish the notice on the boards as ;most people nowadays have internet access, it wasn't mandatory to pubish on noticeboards, so she'd only put it on the boards when she posted the last meeting's draft minutes.on 5 July.

Answer 1

Of course you have a right to inspect the accounts and supporting documents as an elector and your recourse is to the external auditors, details of which should be available on the council's website or local notice board.  However, I'm curious as to why all this about a cheque book?   Surely you've had sight of bank statements as part of your review?  What on earth could a cheque book tell you that is any different from the bank statements?  Few councils now use cheques as most use online banking.

Answer 2

Yes you have the right to view the cheque book if you wish. The council were right in that it is nothing to do with ALC or the internal auditor. The external auditor is your avenue to report this to and should be able to find their contact details on the Notice of Public Rights. Hopefully they will politely remind the council to allow you sight of the chequebook. They would also most likely advise the council to tick 'no' to assertion 4 on next years AGAR.

Note however that the external auditor has no powers to enforce your rights. It would be up to you to resort to legal action to enforce this. You could try citizens advice for help.

There is no legal requirement to post the notice on the notice boards, just on the website (although it is recommended as best practice to do both).

The notice should have been published to the website before the notice period commenced, and not on the same day. Also it should be exactly 30 working days. The period you have indicated is 31 days. If you are feeling picky you could report this to the external auditor as well.

Comments

Cheque book stubs have to be initialled by the cheque signatories. They also have to state the name of the payee. - this was not always the case in the first cheque book I inspected, nor was there a cross reference I could find in other docs as some cheques appeared to have been paid to councillors who had not submitted formal invoices, not had the expenditure agreed by resolution by the council in advance of the payment being made etc etc. So in my eperience cheque books need to be included in any inspecition to ensure due proicess has been followed along with openness and transparency and honesty in all financial transactions. Our parish council is small (under £25,000) so any amount of public money spent from precepted  monies needs to be properly accountef for and the cuuncil held responsible if it hasn't been..

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Quite agree with your reasoning on the use of cheque books. Accounts are accounts.  Invoice presented to council, Cheque or online bank payment through to bank statement, all should have a correct Audit trail.  Councils should welcome anyone who wishes to view and or ask questions on the finances not to be made to feel an inconvenience and when one questions an area one can, at times  be  made out to be the bad guy. Unfortunately you are not alone with what is happening.

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Thanks Bluesky - but where do I turn to get access to the missing cheque book if the Clerk refuses me the right to see it within the set period of inspection?

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Dialogue paper trail would be useful. Email the Clerk and politely ask to view the missing documents or if unavailable, why the documents are not available.  Any person has the legal right to view the documents relating to the Audit. I believe, and stand to be corrected, a reasonable time has to be allowed. It does not state whether that is one viewing or two or three.   Other than a question, within the timeframe, to the External auditor I do not know of an outside body to ask unless asking a lawyer but due to the cost implications to yourself, is that a reasonable line to follow. Not much help i am afraid.

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Thanks again Bluesky. I have written to the Clerk on the day she reused to reschedule my inspectipm appointment and confirm that the second cheque book would be available. It seems a citizen has no other recource thank reporting the Clerk/RFO and council to the police as it is not unreasonable for an elector/taxpayer to perceive the Clerk and council's refusal as an attempt to prevent someone wishing to inspect the council's unaudeted accounts plus all related documents as suspicious. Why would a Clerk/RFO not want to comply with the legal requirements and attempt to block an interested party from their right to inspection during the set period? As we all know perception is all important when openness, transparency, honesty ie the Nolan Principles appear to be being ignored and potentially deliberately flouted for their own purposes by the Clerk/RFO and council.Their behaviour leaves one to wonder 'What are they trying to hide'? Perhaps informing the police and requesting their involvement will make the council come to their senes and speedily  address their legal duties to their electorate/taxpayers?

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I doubt the Police would be interested as no criminal offences have occurred. (although it could be argued that your request to see the chequebook was a valid FOI request and the clerk has blocked your access to it with the intention of preventing the information being disclosed).

Unfortunately the problem with many laws that are supposedly there to protect the public and their rights is that there is no one that enforces these laws. As most people can't afford legal action the breaches of law go unpunished.

You could try writing a Letter Before Action. Part of the rules of pre-court action is that you write a LBA and attempt to resolve the situation informally before it goes to court. So you would set out in the letter what you require to happen - i.e to see the chequebook - to resolve the situation. Receiving a LBA might just be enough to jolt them into action. There is no requirement to follow through with legal action if you issue a LBA - it is merely a communication that action might be taken should the issue not be resolved.

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Thank you - helpful advice which I'll try. I think the Clerk will spin things out and philibuster until there's no time left during the set period for it to be arranged, using excuses like she hasn't the time to spare/she's going on hoiiday/she cannot book the village hall/etc...

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Write a letter of Objection to the Annual Governance Accountability Review......find the external auditor details - should be on the notice or AGAR from last year. Call them and tell them what has happened - they may suggest putting it in writing and they will probably then remind the clerk of duty and your legal right. I just did a Letter of Objection - which had to be done during the public inspection period.....and the external auditor was helpful in guidance.....the clerk resigned the next day! My objections haven't even been looked at yet but who knows if my objections are right or wrong but I found accounting errors and I needed to write a record for my own conscience.