» It takes tattoo: body art on show at Tokyofest
THE county’s former chief fire officer Stewart Edgar spent £24,000 of public money on an office upgrade, according to an internal audit report.
Mr Edgar, inset, used the money to convert an office into a larger one for himself in the last three months of his job, the report said.
The internal audit looked at policies and procedures within Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service following a number of whistleblower complaints.
Gloucestershire County Council said Mr Edgar’s office upgrade was “not a responsible use of public funds”.
Mr Edgar resigned from the top job
in June 2018 after an internal county council investigation found he undersold a service Land Rover thousands of pounds below the market value, later buying it for himself.
The document found capital expenditure had been incorrectly processed to a different account between 2015 and 2019.
The internal audit also found £16,000 was spent on refurbishing the Principal Officers’ meeting room in 2017/18.
The report said the head of delivery services told auditors “he had not given approval” for the purchases, and verbally advised the previous assistant chief fire officerthat Mr Edgar’s proposed conversion was “not appropriate and not sanctioned”. The head of delivery services, the report said, was only made aware of the completion of the work when the a facilities manager visited the room in July 2018 – after Mr Edgar had resigned.
An 11-point action plan has now been created to address the internal audit recommendations made in relation to the investigation of the fire service.