One of the legal duties of a parish Councillor is to approve payments and the monthly accounts.
Since we have change the accounts software we are no longer given a schedule of payments to
approve as an agenda item, it is enclosed it the statement of accounts which are poorly presented.
The list of payments no longer shows the reason for the payment, I raised this at last nights meeting
and was told it will be looked into.
Once again all the other members of the council accepted the accounts. It appears to me they
would accept anything placed in front of them and it is my opinion they are all neglecting their
responsibilities to protect public money.
The same applies to the Councillors who sign the cheques before meetings. Before our first meeting
I watched two councillors signing and not looking for work orders etc.
The assistant Clerk carefully check all have been signed and sees the stubs have not been initialed.
She then finds a cheque has not been signed by one of the councillors, he is told he has missed one
and signs it without checking anything.
This poor standard of care was witnessed by another councillor who joked put one in for me.
In the list shown are a number of items paid that I am not able to tell the tax payer what the
expenditure is for.
At the meeting the chairman pointing out it is important that all Cllrs know what they are approving.
I asked why we paid Lite Ltd a large sum in November no answer was given.
I also asked why we are paying GE Capital Ltd? which could be the cleaners store card etc and was told it was payment for the new printer copier. I did not ask about all the others because it is pointless.
I just voted against the accounts.
I wonder if other members understand the legal consequences of approving these unclear accounts are?
