‘Poor care records led to fraud concerns’

POOR record-keeping in care homes led to mistaken concerns of fraud taking place.

Vale of Glamorgan council’s governance and audit committee were told about various governance-related concerns in a number of council departments highlighted by auditors at a meeting.

The concerns, listed in a report on progress against internal audit risks, included an incomplete audit trail of stock checks at residential homes, no recording of staff meals or wastage, and a lack of guidance for food ordering.

Concerns were also raised in relation to leisure centre contract and performance monitoring.

Speaking about the care home records, deputy head of regional internal audit service Joan Davies said: “There were concerns within the homes that potentially there could have been fraud or unaccounted-for items of stock, so it was quite a focused piece of work that we did.

“The connections and relations that came from the work that we did had to be made because we felt the controls were so weak, we couldn’t with any reliability say ‘yes or no there was any fraud’.

“We did have regard to the amount of money that was being spent and the contracts and the various things that you have raised and that was in our report.

“We will be going back to make sure that has been put in place.

“Hopefully then that will allay fears that there [wasn’t] any fraud.”

The other areas of improvement auditors noted about Vale residential care homes include:

No standard ordering practice is in place across care homes, order book orders do not have any financial values attached until invoices are received and no authorisation limits are in place.

Multiple retrospective orders are attached to previous authorised orders.

Another concern highlighted by auditors in relation to debtors at the council states communication records are not being kept in an easily accessible location.

In relation to leisure centres, auditors noted performance monitoring does not take place in line with contractual requirements and quarterly contractor meetings and formal annual reviews have either not taken place or are not documented in line with contract requirements.

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “Relevant council departments are aware of the findings reported at a recent governance and audit committee meeting and have taken steps to address them.”