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Audit approval for council
MISTERTON Parish Council has been given a clean bill of health for its latest financial accounts.
An external auditor examined the financial year for 2008/09 and declared records to be 'satisfactory' with a notice of conclusion of audit recently posted on village notice boards.
A number of residents had queried aspects of the parish council's accounts but the audit confirmed there were satisfactory explanations given to the issues raised.
Parish clerk David Wright explained electors were perfectly entitled to query the accounts however this costs council taxpayers.
In this case a 255 charge was added to the standard fee of 875 - before the addition of VAT.
"We're subject to a stringent, statutory audit regime. Every year we have a qualified internal auditor look through the books, as required by the Audit Commission," Mr Wright added. "The term 'internal auditor' suggests that he's from the parish council - but he's not. He checks through all our records, including minutes, invoices and payments, and every penny of income and expenditure, before certifying compliance with a considerable number of internal control objectives.
"The books are then open to the public for inspection for 20 working days, prior to our annual return being submitted to our external auditor. During the last inspection period, just two residents came to look through our records. So there's not a lot of concern among residents that we're 'cooking the books'."
The clerk explained he was happy to explain the audit procedure to any residents who had concerns.
"But what happened last year was that a number of electors raised concerns with our external auditors," he added.
"They have a right to do so but by not asking me to explain first, they have cost the parish an extra 255.
"I should add that the external auditor is not required to reveal the identity of such electors to us.
"Interestingly, there were references to complaints of financial impropriety being made to our auditors in the recent spate of anonymous letters. The timing of those letters and the electors' approaches to the external auditor appears significant.
"Bassetlaw District Council is now conducting an internal investigation into the anonymous letters, and hopefully it won't be long before we get some answers."
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Weather for Epworth
Friday 18 May 2012
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