Oakham Town Council, Councillors Questions and Audit Report

Oakham Town Council, Councillors Questions and Audit Report

Dear Allison,

One of my previous questions was missed, I am not to concerned about this because my question

relating to VAT evassion by the Former Mayor Alf Dewis has now been submitted as a freedom

of information request.

My question for 27th April Meeting

I would like to ask a number of questions relating to Oakham Town Council 

accounts, like why the council has not complied with audit law to carry out 

the required quarterly audits. Unfortunately standing orders were changed

so I am only permitted to ask one question at each meeting which in my opinion

is obstructing the duties and responsibilities of any Councillor. For that reason I

I simply ask the following question:

Oakham Town Partnership has been paid £1000, the payment made by the Clerk

is unlawful because this council did not give authority to pay and the payment

made does not even comply with the councils basic financial regulations,

can the council explain the steps it is taking to recover this unlawful payment?

 if we can not change the standing order restricting questions before the
AGM, I will prepare a list of questions for the Town Meeting, among those questions
due to the high level of unlawful activity within the Town Council accounts
for 2015 - 2016, I will be asking Oakham Town Council why the council has
not appointed an auditor to conduct a full audit of the council accounts.
Since I have been looking a little bit closer at payments made I have found
nearly £20,000 of unlawful activity. This is unacceptable when you consider
we were told the activities of 2014 - 2015 which resulted in the resignation
of our former Mayor Alf Dewis would not be repeated.

Nearly a year on we have not even started to use the proper accounting tool
as recommended in the costly Streets Accountants report.

Some of the old members mainly Cllrs Lowe and Lucas get annoyed when
I send all emails like this. I send them because we all have a legal responsibility
to ensure public money is correctly and lawfully accounted for. 

It is also important to remember Cllr Lowe sat back as deputy Mayor

whilst our ex Mayor ignored laws and financial regs, he described Mr

Dewis's actions to the media as minor even though the Grant Thornton 

audit report states the conduct was serious. This is another reason 

I bringing my motion for a vote of no confidence in our Chairman 

Cllr Adam Lowe.

Whilst on the subject of the Grant Thornton Report can it 

be explained why the audit report has been removed from the councils file

and why it has not been presented to full council as required, for comment,

recommendations and acceptance?

Finally, Members should also be cautious when accepting this years accounts.
It would be foolish to accept them knowing that they have not even
been subjected to the basic legal requirement of quarterly internal audits.

From

Martin Brookes (Cllr OSE)