A councillor has questioned the “appropriateness” of a report into Cheshire East’s culture being carried out by the person who was the council’s auditor at the time of the issues being investigated, writes Belinda Ryan.
Grant Thornton wants to bill the council a whopping £319,370 for the public interest report it did on the impact of the council’s culture and governance arrangements during 2014 – 2018.
The report was done by Jon Roberts, of Grant Thornton, who were the council’s external auditors at the time.
Mr Roberts had told the council in February it had been necessary to produce the report because it was in the public interest and work had been delayed because of police investigations into the council at the time, which led to no charges.
The report referred to bullying and intimidation under former Conservative leader Michael Jones, who stepped down in 2015, and looked at details surrounding the controversial awarding of contracts to Nantwich-based Core Fit, a company which was owned by Mr Jones’ physiotherapist.
At Thursday’s meeting of Cheshire East’s audit and governance committee, councillors were told the process for fee variations in these circumstances is set by Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd (PSAA) – so the fee variation [bill] of £319,370 proposed by Grant Thornton will now be considered by that body who will assess whether the amount is reasonable.
Conservative group leader Janet Clowes, who is a not a member of the audit and governance committee and was speaking as a visiting councillor, said: “I’m not surprised at the size of the audit fee, we know these things are very expensive and a lot of legal work was involved, but I do question the value for money of this report and the way in which it was conducted.
“I don’t deny the value of a public interest report and the findings of it, but certainly the methodology was, at times, prolonged unnecessarily.
“And I take, for example, the fact that I was only consulted in the October after six months had already gone past.
“So I do hope that this will be redressed when it is looked at and that it is reduced because this is public money and public money can be better spent in Cheshire East on other things.”
She added: “In terms of going forward with this, I do question, and I have always questioned, the appropriateness of a public interest report being carried out by the same person that was the external auditor at the time of these issues being investigated.
“I will leave it there, it’s something I raised in February, I don’t want to go into it again now, but I think it is a question that has not yet been satisfactorily answered.”
Head of finance Alex Thompson said it was his understanding the PSAA would discuss their findings with him when they looked at the fee being proposed.
He told the committee: “We are not responsible for the report as an organisation, we did not commission this activity.
“It was identified by the auditors that they felt there was a report required in the public interest.
“That was their decision and the responsibility of the council is to pay the bill and the responsibility of the PSAA is to moderate that that process has been done proportionate.”
Funny how the council finds money for these things but not provide the services its meant to