More problems have been uncovered by the District Auditor, this time in the way City of York Council handles its debt recovery process. The news comes on the back of a damning assessment by the District Auditor of the way governance systems are set up in the local authority. Audit and Governance Committee member, Coun. David Scott said the District Auditor's comments confirmed what he had feared:

"In response to my question the District Auditor said that it appeared to him that his previous recommendations had been shelved. Not only that, but he also believed that other recommendations that had been made had also been shelved and no action taken.

"This is a worry and perhaps begins to explain why the Executive Member for Corporate Services has jumped ship in recent weeks. I really don't know quite what else the District Auditor can do to get this council to change its procedures.
"Its last report setting out what the council needed to do was submitted in August 2006, and now 2 years on we are no further on.

The Debt Recovery Arrangements Follow Up Review report concludes that the council has not addressed the majority of recommendations from the August 2006 report. And in a further worrying sign for good governance, the report and action plan issued in 2006 were not presented to members after they were agreed.

"There are a number of issues the council must treat as high priority, which have been listed in detail by the District Auditor", added Coun. Scott . "There can be no more excuses, and we must not be having this same post-mortem for a third time when next the council is assessed for this aspect of its financial systems. It must learn and learn quickly".