Concern over city council charity paying invoice 14 months late
FRESH concerns have been raised about a charity controlled by Nottingham City Council after an invoice was paid 14 months late.
The council is the sole trustee of the Bridge Estate, which provides for the maintenance of Trent Bridge and funding if a new bridge is built.
A recent report from an accounting firm, released to the public after a Post campaign, raised concerns about how money from the Bridge
Estate was being used. Now, the charity’s auditor says the way it makes payments should be reviewed after several cases of invoices being paid late.
The auditor, Rogers Spencer, says in a letter to the charity: “Whilst reviewing purchase invoices we identified that payments for some invoices from Nottingham City Council were significantly late, with one being paid 14 months late. The reason given for this was ‘internal resources have caused problems raising and paying invoices... [Bridge and city council]... transactions have been given a low priority as we know we will pay each other.’
“All Nottingham City Council invoices should be paid within 30 days. It is recommended that procedures around payment are reviewed to ensure that invoices are settled on a timely basis.”
Despite the concern, the charity’s auditor says it did not find any “material weaknesses” overall.
The council has also set out more detail on how surplus money generated by the charity has been used. A report from EY showed that during the 2020/21 financial year, more cash was transferred to the council than the amount of surplus money generated by the Bridge Estate.
Around £1.5m was transferred to the council, despite the £543,000 operating deficit generated that year. Concerns were raised that restricted ‘endowment’ funds were therefore used to contribute to the £1.5m transfer. The city council later confirmed a review into the charity found no endowment funds were used. Despite that, the council still says it will carry out a review of the way in which it transfers the Bridge Estate’s income to itself.