PROBES PLAYED DOWN BY COUNCIL Workers’concerns investigated
Cllr Willie Wilson Council bosses have played down the significance of a trio of probes sparked after allegations centering on PKC’s environment service.
Internal investigations have been conducted as a result of a series of claims made by anonymous whistleblowers, councillors were told – but they had uncovered “no specific areas of concern”.
Officer Jackie Clark confirmed to members of the audit committee that separate details for each case had not been prepared after finding no evidence of the alleged “deficiencies”.
Councillor Willie Wilson then asked under what circumstances elected members would receive reports detailing the outcomes of
internal investigations.
Ms Clark replied that reports would only be prepared on the outcome of internal investigations if auditors uncovered any “control weaknesses” within the department under investigation but went on to stress that the three probes under discussion had not uncovered such issues.
The council’s head of legal services, Lisa Simpson, added that since the allegations were made anonymously the complaints were not considered by her department and also could not be considered as whistleblowing in its “strictest legal sense”.
According to historical reports presented to the audit committee, over the last seven months the earliest internal investigation started sometime between April and the end of September last year, and only concluded sometime between February and the end of March this year. Papers also showed the second investigation started between September and November last year and only concluded sometime before February this year. The third investigation appears to have started sometime between November last year and February this year and only concluded before this month’s audit committee meeting.
Asked how many hours internal auditors had spent investigating all the above allegations a PKC spokesperson would only say the time officers spent investigating such allegations “varies from case to case”.
“The inclusion of whistleblowing incidents investigated by internal audit on the agenda for this week’s audit committee gave elected members the opportunity to discuss any issues with the chief internal auditor,” she continued.
The council representative added: “Committee members approved the report as it appeared. As clarified during the meeting whistleblowing referred to in PKC’s internal audit report includes issues or concerns which have been raised anonymously to allow these to be investigated. The amount of time taken for an investigation varies from case to case and elected members are informed where these investigations highlight weaknesses in controls, along with an action plan to improve the control environment.”