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The Internal Audit Report for Oakham Town Council covering the 2025–2026 financial year presents a comprehensive assessment of the authority's administrative, financial, and regulatory frameworks
From an objective local government governance perspective, this document must be classified as a significantly weak and highly critical ("bad") audit report for Oakham Town Council.
Out of the 14 active, applicable internal control objectives scrutinised by the auditor, the council failed to achieve standard regulatory compliance in eight key objectives, receiving an explicit "No" assurance marking for each
Crucially, this is worsened by the fact that many of these failures are repeated omissions carried over from the previous 2024–25 financial year
To provide necessary context, the auditor notes that the 2025–26 financial year was plagued by severe staff turnover in the council office
The core of the auditor's critique spans across nine operational, financial, and legal risk areas:
1. Severe Operational Vulnerability & Banking Access Failures (Objective C)
The auditor issued an explicit "No" because the council completely ignored recommendations from the previous year to update its Risk Register to mitigate the temporary or permanent loss of key staff
Due to a lack of office-wide contingency planning, staff salary payments for May 2026 had to be executed from home by the primary RFO while he was off on leave
The current acting RFO has been left with zero online access to the council's bank accounts, forcing a risky reliance on individual council members to log in and authorise day-to-day transactions
Since the Deputy RFO took leave from the council in November 2025, absolutely no one at the authority has been able to access the Cambridge Building Society online account
Unlawful Employment Status & Unvouched Salaries.
The council's payroll and personnel administration were found to be in direct violation of internal regulations and UK statutory law:
The current acting RFO has been working without an executed Contract of Employment, which is a core statutory requirement under UK employment law
Barring a single reference to a locum’s wage, the auditor found no minuted evidence that the council had formally reviewed, agreed upon, or recorded the individual rates of pay for its employees
Deep Deficiencies in Fixed Asset Accounting (Objective H)
While the council claims to hold £1,723,568 in fixed assets
The register does not log individual additions or disposals
Massive asset classes are grouped together blindly
The council mixed disparate valuation approaches within the same register, arbitrarily using "insured value," "replacement cost," and "historic cost"
On comparison, the values recorded in the asset register showed no structural correlation with the council's actual insurance policy schedules, presenting a significant risk of severe under- or over-insurance
The register is unnecessarily cluttered with extremely low-value, consumable property logs (e.g., a £10 broom and a £20 cement trowel), ignoring standard local government practice of applying a de minimis capitalisation threshold of £250 or £500
Failure to Perform Regular Bank Reconciliations (Objective I)
Reconciling cash books to bank statements is the primary internal control used to catch accounting errors and prevent fraud
Non-Adoption of Mandatory Accounting Standards (Objective J)
Because Oakham Town Council commands an annual income well in excess of £200,000, it is statutorily required by the Practitioners’ Guide to prepare its statements on an Income and Expenditure basis (which incorporates debtors and creditors)
Failure to Issue Invoices for Leases & Allotments (Objective E)
Though the council technically received a "Yes" for its income entry, the auditor unmasked a complete absence of basic financial oversight systems
Breach of Statutory Transparency & Public Rights Laws (Objectives M & N)
The council repeatedly failed to comply with public transparency requirements mandated by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015
During the previous cycle, the external auditor penalised the council because it completely omitted the mandatory contact name of the person required to exercise public rights and delayed the statutory opening dates
The council failed to publish its legally mandated Section 2 Accounting Statements and its Notice of Conclusion of Audit on its website
Direct Violations of Digital and Data Compliance (Objective O)
The council is operating in breach of UK statutory accessibility law
Wasteful Investment Strategy & Cash Inefficiencies (Note 1)
The auditor highlighted a major lack of commercial awareness regarding the management of public funds
Total Collapse and Inactivity of the Finance Committee (Note 2)
In a telling structural failure, the auditor discovered that despite explicit council policies requiring the Finance Committee to meet at least quarterly, neither the formal Finance Committee nor its temporary Working Group replacement met a single time during the entire financial year
Summary of Council Responses & Next Steps
The saving grace of this audit report is the constructive, transparent manner in which the findings were received. The newly appointed Locum Clerks and acting RFO did not contest or defend these systemic failures
The new financial team has prioritised the following corrective actions
Amending the official Risk Register to include staff absence contingencies and presenting it to the Full Council immediately
. Overhauling bank mandates to secure online access for the new acting RFO and resolving access issues with the Cambridge Building Society
. Formally adopting the mandatory Income and Expenditure accounting method for the 2026-27 cycle
. Resolving individual staff contract omissions and formalising clear salary scales in the public minutes
. Initiating a comprehensive physical asset audit, stripping out low-value items, and implementing a formal de minimis policy
. Re-establishing the Finance Committee to meet at least quarterly to ensure proper oversight moving forward
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For the residents of Oakham, ensuring that elected members fully support the new locum staff in executing these overhauls will be essential to restoring basic regulatory compliance, transparent financial reporting, and the proper protection of public funds
Oakham Town Council Internal Audit Report 2025-2026
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