Outcry over wait to see Weca report
A watchdog report on 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 in June but have still not shared it with the organisation’s cross-party audit committee, which oversees governance and finance.
They launched the probe last December after identifying a “risk of significant weakness” in Weca’s valuefor-money (VFM) arrangements because of the public spat between Metro Mayor Dan Norris, who leads the regional body, and the heads of its three constituent councils.
At the height of the row last year, Labour’s Mr Norris branded Labour Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, Tory South Gloucestershire Council leader Toby Savage and Lib Dem Bath & North East Somerset Council leader Kevin Guy the “Hokey Cokey Three”, as 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”.
The finance firm’s initial findings were presented to a handful of top Weca officers on June 20, but were “excluded” from a report to members at their latest meeting on October 12.
Combined authority chiefs insisted they had “not been sitting on the report” since the start of summer and were legally bound by confidentiality not to share it, while Grant Thornton said what had happened was “standard procedure”.
Committee chairman Tory Cllr Geoff Gollop told the meeting: “I was surprised to discover from the Grant Thornton report that officers have had the report for almost four months but neither I nor the audit committee have seen the draft as presented then, or copies amended to show officer responses. Audit committee needs an explanation of why it still has not seen this report.
“If the report has significant implications, we need to know why it has taken so long and how improvements have been made and lessons learned.”
Weca interim director of law and democratic services Stephen Gerrard, one of the officers who was shown the report in June, said: “It’s not for officers to discuss that report, in fact we are legally restrained from doing so until we have been released from the confidentiality by the auditors. We have seen various drafts of the report but are yet to see the final report.”
Grant Thornton partner Jon Roberts said their “deep dive” had been “exhaustive” and had inevitably led to delays publishing it.
He said they had followed legal advice on what information should be given to whom, which had not included any politicians, to “make sure it’s not shared inappropriately” and that he was pleased there had been no leaks.
Mr Roberts said he would have liked quicker progress but the final report was nearing completion and would be presented to the committee’s next meeting on November 10.
Cllr Gollop said: “I understand legislation may protect confidentiality but I would hope legislation actually allowed audit committee to be demanding that reports are dealt with in a timely fashion rather than allowed to gather dust.
“The law regarding confidentiality is not a reason for not communicating with the audit committee what is happening on something that is recorded as being a significant concern.”