Wellington council couldn’t see financial monitoring reports because ‘officer was off’
When one key member of staff is off, councillors in a Shropshire market town don’t get to see certain financial reports, a meeting heard.
Wellington Town Council members were told at a meeting this week that staff absence doesn’t prevent invoices and bills being paid, money coming in or otherwise prevent the authority from functioning.
But they decided to pass the issue over for another committee to have a look at.
The town council’s policy and resources committee on Wednesday was due to receive finance reports for July, and get an update on recommendations made by an internal auditor.
Karen Roper, the council chief executive and town clerk, said: “We are unable to produce further information because of illness.”
The meeting was told that no-one else has the information needed to access the systems and print off reports in the officer’s absence, which had been unexpected.
Councillor Stephen de Launey (Liberal Democrats, Meadows ward) said it was not an unusual situation for the council to find itself in.
He said: “If the finance officer is unavailable we have always had a situation where we do not have a deputising arrangement. We are back in that situation now. “
He added: “I wonder if it is time to consider whether a current member of staff, or a new member of staff, could be included in an oversight of finances. “
The clerk said that the council still has access to its bank accounts and it is not an issue from that point of view.
Councillor Lee Carter (Labour, College ward) – who is also the leader of Telford & Wrekin Council – proposed that the issue be passed to the council’s personnel committee “to have a look at that”.
Committee chair Councillor Paul Davis (Labour, Park ward) – who is also a cabinet member in Councillor Carter’s borough cabinet, said: “It is not a big issue for us.”
He supported moving the issue to the personnel committee and added that councillors see a ‘significantly better’ level of financial reporting than previously.
After councillors decided to go behind closed doors to discuss confidential contract infomation, the public part of the meeting ended after 15 minutes.
