Highland Council’s own auditors have reported serious weaknesses in six audits they’ve recently completed across the council’s operations.
The audits were discussed yesterday at the council’s Audit & Scrutiny Committee in Inverness, with chairman councillor Graham Mackenzie calling the findings ‘unusual and disappointing.’
A report into the council’s financial handling of its £315million City Region Deal, and its level of non-compliance, were described as so weak that that they put “system objectives at risk”.
The audit highlighted a failure to so far spend around £2million of Scottish Government funding provided over the course of three years on major projects such as the Inverness Castle redevelopment.
There was also a failure to sign a legal agreement in respect to a £287,000 grant award to Highlands and Islands Enterprise for the Science Skills, and a failure to process invoices, including one for almost £68,000.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said: “The internal audit has identified valid concerns about financial and other governance issues.
“These have been addressed by additional staff help and financial controls.”
Opposition spokesman Ron MacWilliam said: “The city deal can’t be allowed to fall down anywhere and Highland Council as the accountable body needs to get an immediate grip of its own governance flaws.”
In the other audits, officers found VAT amounting to almost £190,000 was not accounted for from off-street car parking in Lochaber and Skye due changes in the collection the recording process.
The amount has subsequently been paid and declared to HM Revenue & Customs.
Audit officers also said they had sampled 30 staff expense claims to find that more than half were claiming without receipts.
In winter maintenance, auditors said gritting policy was not always being followed, occurring additional costs.
Skye was highlighted as using 18% more salt than expected last winter. Audit officers said senior management should investigate the high usage to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
In their audit of the arrangements for the procurement and payment of homeless services, officers found the specialist supported accommodation had not been competitively tendered, as previously agreed.
The £471,000 contract continues to be provided by a single provider, based on the historical grant payment.
Officers said immediate action was underway to address this matter.
Mr Mackenzie, who took over chairmanship of Audit & Scrutiny last year, said he wanted the committee to restructure and operate in a more effective manner.
He said: “We’ve had six reports today, none of which have achieved anything other than ‘reasonable assurance’ level.
“If a report comes back to us showing no assurance or limited assurance that should be the trigger for our committee to consider forming a group to assess progress and outcomes.”