The acting Clerk Malcolm Plumb did read out a few failings like the council not having a adequate property register, I assume because the council does not want to release the report there are other more serious failings reported which they do not want shared with the public, perhaps a resident could request a copy and they might not be turned away like me, after all I am only a Town Councillor why should I know what the internal auditor has to say about our council?
Oakham Town Council Internal Audit Report Failure to Publish or Provide a requested copy
Dear Oakham Town Council
At the last meeting I asked the acting Clerk if he could supply all members with a copy of the most recent internal audit report which held up to members at the same meeting and read selected highlights.
Members then voted to accept the report without seeing it. The acting clerk said he would be passing
on the councils acknowledgement of the report to the internal auditor or words to that effect. I have not looked back at the video recording.
At the end of last week I spoke to the assistant clerk and requested a copy of the internal audit report
She said I am not refusing you a copy but I will have to speak to Malcolm the acting Clerk to see if
he still has it.
The internal audit reports as the external audit report are public documents and should be made available for inspection when requested by Councillors or members of the public. This continued refusal to provide documents is unacceptable. What has the council got to hide this time?
It is a requirement that audit reports are published online, if they were this would save the office time dealing with requests like this.
At this moment in time the council is failing to comply with many new laws regarding the various openness and transparency
acts.
No disrespect is meant when I say our acting Clerk is a little out of date, you only have to look back at his comment at the last meeting when he stated what would bar a person from being co-opted onto the council. He stated bankrupts could not be Councillors that law changed not long ago.
Also at the last meeting the Chairman refused to state who received two payments totally £18,000 shown on the schedule of payments. He wrongly quoted data protection. Council must publish the full details of all payments over £500 and this prevents Freedom of Information requests.
As the council is refusing to tell me or the public who received these payments I will be disputing them at the end of the year. The council can not hide who they have paid this money to they can withhold the reason but like many local authority pay offs this is normally worked out by the public.
To finish can I once again request a copy of the internal audit report that was waved at Councillors at the last meeting.
thank you
Martin Brookes (Cllr OSE)
