A report into possible wrongdoing at a North East council’s development company now looks set to be made public, after local authority chiefs were pressed into a U-turn.
Northumberland County Council says it will release redacted findings of the probe from auditors KPMG into Advance Northumberland “as soon as possible”. The authority had previously insisted the much-discussed document would remain secret as it contained sensitive information, while it was also mistakenly claimed to be the subject of a police investigation earlier this year.
The forensic audit report was commissioned after the council’s chief executive, Daljit Lally, raised concerns last summer that Advance had inherited problems from its scandal-hit predecessor Arch. After a resident called last week for the council to make KPMG’s investigations public, members of the authority’s audit committee echoed that demand on Wednesday morning and were told that it could now be released once personal and commercially sensitive information is removed.
