Media Release from City of York Council Labour Group
Audit and Governance Committee member, Coun. Sonja Crisp said:
"The draft Annual Governance Report has slated the council on not learning from its mistakes of the past. Last year the closedown of accounts were not completed to a sufficiently high standard, something which has been replicated this year. It is one thing to make a mistake, but it is quite another not to learn from it when it is spelt out in black and white".
And the criticism did not end there, with the External Auditor declaring their own deadline compromised by the late submission of information and reports by the council. The report also indicated the Audit and Governance committee was unable to do its job as it is supposed to, due to the council's own working timetable for accounts. Another member of the committee, Coun. David Scott explained how this was the case. He said:
"The final draft accounts should have been scrutinised by the Audit and Governance Committee, but could not be as they were not ready. Timetables were just not followed. Were they ready, then perhaps the council would not have come in for the sort of flack described variously as ‘disappointing', and ‘below the expected standard' by the External Auditor.
"The External Auditor has also raised concerns that the quality of working papers submitted to him are below an acceptable standard.
"The upshot of this is residents of York losing confidence in the way their money is being spent. This kind of approach will only lead them to think that the current administration is just not bothered. These are the procedures that determine the standard of governance in the council - which on this evidence is extremely poor. It is time for the new Executive Member for Corporate Services to get his house in order".