A report by watchdogs investigating whether “frictions” among the region’s political leaders are jeopardising good use of public money has been “gathering dust” for four months, councillors claim. External auditors Grant Thornton gave a draft version of their findings to West of England Combined Authority (Weca) bosses back in June but have still not shared it with the organisation’s cross-party audit committee, which is supposed to oversee governance and finance.
They launched the probe last December after identifying a “risk of significant weakness” in Weca’s value-for-money (VfM) arrangements because of the public spat between metro mayor Dan Norris, who leads the regional body, and the elected heads of its three constituent councils. At the height of the row last year, Labour’s Mr Norris branded fellow Labour mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, South Gloucestershire Council leader Conservative Cllr Toby Savage and Bath & North East Somerset Council leader Lib Dem Cllr Kevin Guy the “Hokey Cokey Three”, while they boycotted a Weca committee where decisions involving millions of pounds should have been made.
Now, the audit committee has been told that Grant Thornton’s work, to determine whether the governance arrangements impacting the politicians’ relationships was putting effective use of taxpayers’ cash at risk, was “substantially complete”. But despite the fact the finance firm’s initial findings were presented to a handful of top Weca officers on June 20, these were still “excluded” from a report to members at their latest meeting on Wednesday, October 12.
