As predicted by the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative-controlled county council has received a humiliating rebuke from its auditor over the state of its account who has used his powers under the Audit Commission Act 1998 to issue a rare ‘Section 11’ notice.

In it he says

• the council needs to make sure there are adequate resources and skills in place to support the preparation of accounts
• the production of working papers needs to be improved so that they are available at the start of the audit
• officials need to quality check its financial statements and supporting documents before they are sent to committee
• additional training needs to be made available for staff
• report regularly to members about how the production of financial statements is proceeding

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Allan Siao Ming Witherick said: ‘We’re still awaiting the formal press coverage which the Section 11 demands but in the mean time the Audit papers have come out for the meeting on the 25 November. The two items of interest though, the Annual Governance Report, and the Tory response, still haven’t been received and that’s a real concern.’