A much-discussed audit report into Northumberland County Council's arms-length development company is set to be released to the public.
At a meeting of the council's audit committee on Wednesday, the council's interim director of finance, Jan Willis, announced that a redacted version of KPMG's forensic audit report into Advance Northumberland will be released to the public "shortly".
Confusion has surrounded the report for some time. In January, Ms Willis told the committee that the report could not be released as it was the subject of a long-term investigation by Northumbria Police. However, the force subsequently denied this.
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In March, councillors were told that the audit committee would be given the report - but it would not be presented to the wider public. However, following calls from the public to release the report, the council u-turned in May and announced it would release the report after all.
At the time, Ms Willis said: "Whatever we can publish will be published as soon as possible." Now, two months later, the finance chief has suggested the report will be published imminently."
Speaking at Wednesday's meeting, she said: "A redacted version is being prepared. I hope that will be released into the public domain shortly.
"There have been some complexities around data protection and commercial sensitivity, but we do now have a redacted version. My expectation is that it will be released shortly."
Coun Nick Oliver asked Ms Willis if she could give a "general flavour" of the report, adding: "There has been a lot of adverse and damaging criticism of Advance, in my view unfair, in the press.
"I think this report was commissioned to put that to bed. Does it do that?"
Ms Willis replied; "Nothing is ever perfect and it is clear from the report that there is still work to be done. However, I think it does show that the governance is fit for purpose."
A report presented to members and available publicly does contain snippets of KPMG's findings. The auditors concluded that: "Whilst they did not find evidence of detailed, documented processes and procedures for each of the areas examined, the individuals involved in the various activities did appear to follow a reasonably well-defined process."
The report continued: "The report does not identify any inaccuracies in the recording of legal costs relating to conveyancing and concludes that arrangements for payment of stamp duty land tax have been correctly applied.
"Regarding the purchase and disposal of property KPMG conclude that there is a process which is consistently followed but this is largely informal. They recommend that action is taken to ensure that procedures and key decisions are properly documented."
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