Concerns over fuel handling
£300koverspendrecorded
An internal audit has found significant risks with how Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) stores and uses its fuel supplies.
One area of concern was the fact PKC spent £300,000 more than budgeted - with the fuel bill totalling almost £2 million.
Other audit findings included a faulty fuel gauge, unsigned delivery notes and staff not always being present for fuel deliveries.
However Direct Services manager Nigel Taylor this week assured councillors he was not aware of any instances of fraud.
A report on PKC’S internal audit on fuel went before the council’s Audit and Risk Committee on Monday, March 25.
It said the local authority used “mainly diesel for its fleet, such as heavy vehicles in waste management and mechanical equipment in ground maintenance”.
The report concluded “limited assurance can be placed on the controls in relation to custody and utilisation of council fuel supplies”.
It said the significant risks “may have a serious impact on the council and the achievement of its objectives” and warned “immediate management action needs to be taken to reduce the level of risk”.
In 2022/23 PKC’S fuel budget was £1.6 million but the actual spend was £307,470 more than budgeted.
Among the other issues highlighted were: fleet management was unaware of a broken fuel gauge at Friarton; staff were not always present when fuel deliveries were made and delivery notes were not always signed by council staff to verify receipt of delivery, as well as other missing paperwork which the service believed was due to moving between a paper and electronic method of processing and storing the information.
A Management Action
Plan has been drawn up with 10 action points which will require to be carried out – some by as soon as April 2024.
The actions include: conducting a monthly fuel audit; monitoring the fuel budget; a recording of pump readings for each delivery, and recording the fuel usage of each vehicle.
The committee’s convener Conservative councillor David Illingworth asked Mr Taylor if there was any evidence of fraud.
Mr Taylor said: “We are not aware of any instances of fraud.
“The last audit report took place eight years ago and during that period of time Perth and Kinross Council did not have all its vehicles fitted with trackers or telemetry.
“We now have that across the board and so the opportunities for potential fraud, theft of fuel, mismanagement of fuel have been radically minimised during that eight-year period.
“We have CCTV coverage of all our pumps.
“As one of the findings in the report, service managers will be receiving more up-todate information regarding each of their vehicles so that they can spot any anomalies.”
We are not aware of any instances of fraud