The publication of Bedford Borough Council’s draft accounts has been delayed again – meaning they were not published on Friday (23 June) as originally stated.
On 31 May, the council announced a delay to the public inspection of its accounts for the last financial year.
A short notice on its website said: “Under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 regulations 9 and 15, the commencement period for the exercise of public rights to inspect the draft 2022/2023 accounts and related documents (based on an account’s completion date of 31 May 2023), should include the first 10 working days of June, with inspection dates being between 1 June and 12 July, 2023.”
An update was published yesterday (22 June), but the new notice gave a non-existent date – Friday, 30 July 2023.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted the council to point out this error.
On Friday (23 June), the notice, without a comment from the council (at the time of publication), was updated to say that the council now aims to publish the draft 2022/2023 accounts by Monday, 31 July.
No reason was given for the new delay, the notice only repeated the original statement that “the audit of the 2021/2022 accounts is still in progress due to a variety of complex factors arising from audit delays in previous years”.
The council spends public money (from national and local taxes, as well as charges to service users) and it has to show local residents and taxpayers how that money is spent.
When it has finished preparing accounts for the financial year the council must make them available for inspection for a 30 working-day period.
This includes every invoice, payment and receipt registered in the council’s ledgers (it may not be possible to inspect information which is protected by commercial confidentiality).
