Can a parish councillor receive retrospective payment for goods he has already purchased

Question

A parish councillor is repeatedly submitting requests for retrospective payment for goods he has purchased out of his own pocket for the council. I am given to understand that this is "unlawful" but cannot find the law to which it relates. I would add that in two cases, the parish council was not even informed of the total sum in advance of the request for reimbursement, let alone requested to sanction it in advance. Both instances were for goods which were required, but as the money was spent in advance no sanction could be given and no upper limit could be discussed. 

Our Financial Regulations state :

8: ORDERS FOR WORK, GOODS AND SERVICES
8.1 All expenditure relating to the provision of work, goods or services must be approved by Council

but this does not include the words "in advance". Does this make a difference? and under the circumstances, is it lawful for a Parish Council to issue a cheque to any councillor personally where the payment is for other than any claim for expenses already documented in law as being acceptable? 

Answer 1

It is a messy situation, hard to say whether it is lawful.

Certainly an individual councillor cannot make a decision. So the decision to make a purchase is the councillor's own. There is no obligation on the council to reimburse the councillor at this point, since the council did not make the decision to make the purchase.

So the councillor is effectively making a proposal to the council, that the council should agree to the purchase and thus become liable to pay for it, in practice reimbursing the councillor.

The situation would be quite different for the clerk, who can make delegated decisions, so long as they are within the scope granted by the council.

The conclusion seems to be that the procedure may be construed as lawful, but is certainly poor practice.