+- LIBERAL TALK (http://talk.liberal.org.uk)
+--- Thread: Letter to the Reading Chronicle – Reading Burrough Council Accounts 2022/2023 (/showthread.php?tid=902)
Letter to the Reading Chronicle – Reading Burrough Council Accounts 2022/2023 - ReadingLib - 11-16-2023
I note from my calendar that Reading Burrough Council has inevitably failed to publish its 2022/23 accounts by the 31st of October, the 6th time is 7 years that the council has failed to meet the publishing deadline.
This now leaves local council taxpayers with 3 sets of missing account, those being 20/21, which exists only as a draft, and the subsequent sets for 21/22 and 22/23.
Since taking over from KPMG, the councils auditors EY are believed to have billed the council over £1 million pounds in additional auditing fee’s up to and including the 2017/18 accounts, which suggest the cost has continue to climb towards the £1.5 million pound mark.
The fact that a council with an annual budget of £160 million pounds can’t deliver publicly accessible accounts to the council tax paying public seems to be a mere inconvenience for the ruling labour party.
In fact, timely published accounts act as a reassurance that the council taxpayers’ monies are being spent wisely, and that the council’s finances are on a sustainable footing, with no unwelcome surprises for council taxpayers.