Bedford Borough Council has delayed the inspection of its accounts, just days after being asked if it would meet the deadline.
By law, the council must tell residents and taxpayers how it spends public money.
This means any resident, or ‘interested person’, may inspect the council’s Statement of Accounts for the last financial year.
A statement published today (Monday) on the council’s website says “under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 regulations 9 and 15, the commencement period for the exercise of public rights to inspect the draft 2024/2025 accounts and related documents, based on an account’s completion date of June 30, 2025, should include the first 10 working days of July, with inspection dates being between July 1, and July 14, 2025.
“Due to resource constraints within the Authority we have been unable to complete the necessary preparation and review of the accounts by the statutory publication date, we will therefore not be in a position to commence the period for the exercise of public rights as set out above.”
During last week’s Audit Committee (25 June), councillor David Sawyer (Lib Dem, De Parys) asked if the council was “hopeful” that it would meet the deadline.
Rhiain Bevan, service director for finance, said the council is working through them in a “robust way” and it would keep the committee informed on the time frames for publication.
The council’s statement said the Audit Committee has been informed of this delay and “work on the accounts continues”.
It added that the accounts will be published “as soon as practicable,” at which point the public will have the right to inspect for 10 working days as required by Regulation 15.
Last year, the council published its draft 2023/24 Statement of Accounts by the statutory deadline of 31 May.
However, the publication of the draft statement of accounts for 2022/2023 was delayed for two months due to a “variety of complex factors arising from audit delays in previous years”.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
