Cllr Dave Romney Oakham Town Council says there is a £7000 unauthorised spending at Oakham Town Council
Cllr Dave Romney's comment posted on
Facebook
I have written and made requests to Oakham Town Council and await their response.
The Mayor has said there are findings in the accountants report and that report is likely to be released later this month.
Dear Oakham Town Council,
Cllr Dave Romney has posted a public allegation on Facebook regarding a possible £7000 unauthorised budget spend.
It is my understanding that members approve all events organised by the council.
The Clerk is responsible for ensuring a budget is not overspent.
If it is reaching the point of an overspend then surely the Clerk should seek further approval from the council?
It would help members and the public, if the council complied with law and published the accounts each month, along with the schedule of payments which include Petty cash and bank statements. These used to be published each month.
Before the monthly meeting all these documents used to be reconciled by two appointed members, I am told this is not happening anymore, those documents attached to the meeting minutes used to have two signatures from the councillors appointed to carry out the reconciliations, why is it not happening?
It appears the councillors are no longer receiving monthly budget reports why?
For many months now, the councils agendas have the clerks comments, documents to follow, these are not published as legally required to be published with the agenda within the legal time frame.
Please could the council explain why agendas and those documents are not even provided to the residents who attend the meetings? This failure makes it impossible for members of the public to raise questions or deputations on the agenda item.
Cllr Dave Romney also suggests the recent accounts report has found nothing and the petty cash issue is sorted.
At the last meeting I attended it was very clearly stated money was missing. Cllr Dave Romney at that same meeting made a proposal that the chairman should raise a conduct complaint against a Cllr who approached the police when they learned public money was missing. Fortunately Rutland County Councils monitoring officer did not entertain the complaint. Please could all the council members who supported this disgraceful proposal please explain why?
A Cllr has a legal duty to protect public money and should not be fearful of going to the police if they feel the council is not handling the issue correctly.
Cllr Dave Romney as you can see from the attached screen shot of his public comment has made a very serious allegation that £7000 has been spent without the approval of the council and that is the reason for the budget overspend. The last Cllr who spent public money without authority paid it back and resigned after a external auditors investigation. Will Cllr Dave Romney be reporting this issue to the external auditor for investigation or is he leaving it to a member of the public who has limited information about the 'unauthorised expenditure'?
Please accept my Freedom of Information Request. 3rd February 2023
- Please could the council tell me how much petty cash is missing?
- Please could the council send me a copy of this years financial accounts, Schedule of payments, (including petty cash) copies of bank statements.
(I would be happy to collect when ready or these can be sent in PDF format via email or perhaps you could publish them as required on the website and direct me to that once done)
Yours sincerely
Martin Brookes
