Get books right, council staff told

OLDHAM Council has been told to improve its book-keeping by an expert auditor.

Last year, council staff were criticised for their internal controls, financial efficiency, financial reporting and use of resources.

This year, district auditor Mark Heap said despite improvements, there were a significant number of material and non-trivial errors.

These ranged from £90million not taken out when assets were transferred from the council to a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) provider, to £13.9 million for completed projects not moved out of the ‘assets under construction’ heading. Despite hard work to improve the supporting financial papers, responses to the auditors were still slow, partly due to the sheer number of queries raised.

The council has introduced a modern computer-based financial reporting system called Agresso.

But there were no documented bank reconciliations from April to August, this year. Some payroll data was not provided until late in the audit.

Quality assurance work needs to be targeted at areas of high risk, because several errors could have a material effect on the accounts.

Staff also need to take steps to make sure data reported to councillors is accurate.

Mr Heap’s six-point action plan calls on the council to:

Strengthen internal quality assurance.

Improve working papers.

Stick to plans to reduce time pressures.

Take steps to reduce numbers and types of errors.

Make sure bank reconcilations are up to date.

Make data more accurate.