Nottingham City Council's opposition leader says he is "disturbed" by the authority not publishing a damning report into its finances. The council has so far published a summary of a review by Ernst and Young (EY), which found that urgent action was needed to avoid "inappropriate financial activity."
The report was commissioned after it was revealed in 2021 that money which should have been spent on the council's housing stock was illegally being spent in other areas. More than £40 million was misspent and due to inflation, it was said earlier this year that the cost of paying this back could eventually reach up to £51 million.
EY's review highlighted issues including missing records and said the council's ability to provide "proper financial stewardship" is being held back. But the authority is refusing to publish the EY report in full.
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Kevin Clarke, leader of the Nottingham Independents Party, attended a meeting of the Audit Committee on Friday (June 30) which discussed the review. Councillor Clarke said he was "quite shocked" after the meeting, where councillors had the chance to question finance directors on the report.
He said he thought the council was "concealing" the report and raised concerns "due to a legacy of what's happened in the past." He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I can't believe the lack of transparency. This [report] is something that should be shared with everybody, especially councillors. It beggars belief really.
"As far as I'm concerned, no councillors have seen the full report. I've been a councillor for four years and I haven't known that before.
"I've had one or two Labour members come to me and ask if I've seen it. Members of the public are wondering why they're pushing it under the carpet and hiding things.
"Is there something to hide, this is what we want to know. They need to come out and show the full report."
But a city council spokesperson said: "The Audit Committee report goes into significant detail about the assessment the council commissioned from EY of financial controls, and is explicit and transparent about the serious concerns identified and the actions being taken to address them.
"We are not able to provide any more information on the assessment as this may impact on further activity that still needs to be undertaken." Ross Brown, the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources at Nottingham City Council, said during Friday's meeting: "We are very much focused on looking forward.
"We've got a credible plan and we have commissioned additional work over and above the existing Financial Improvement Plan. We recognise and accept the findings and the seriousness of them.
"We are very much focused on the actions we need to take to address this as urgently as possible." EY examined six ring-fenced areas: the dedicated Schools Grant, the Better Care Fund, licensing income, parking, traffic regulation and bus lane enforcement income, the Transforming Cities Grant and Selective Licensing.
But Annabel Scholes, the interim director of finance, said: "As difficult as this might be to hear, it doesn’t just relate to the six areas reviewed. Fundamentally it identified system weaknesses that needed to be addressed across the council.
"The findings gave us enough concern to respond quickly. Fundamentally an individual was able to move finances from one area to another without the oversight of a separate person.
"That is a basic control that you ideally would’ve put in place. You have to accept it will take longer than 12 months to resolve this. The finance improvement plan already takes you to March 2024 and I expect it to go beyond that."
