Council lost €53,000 in charging errors
The hard-hitting statutory auditor’s report into the council’s finances in 2003 follows the suspension of a member of staff at the local authority in late April.
Councillors now want to know now if the errors found by the auditor are connected to the suspension or if there are other matters they don’t know about in the council’s finances.
In his report, which has been seen by the Irish Examiner, the auditor, Pat Healy, says the internal audit section of the council has not received the resources or the attention required to function properly since September 2003.
“I noted two significant errors amounting to €53,000 in the calculation of Part V planning contributions. To compound and add to my concern, these contributions were signed off and approved by a second member of staff,” the report says.
“The developer in both cases had paid the agreed contribution and, as a result, the under-charge is uncollectable.”
Part V contributions are made by a developer who opts to pay a fee to the council to provide social housing instead of providing it as part of a development.
Acting director of services Martin Walsh said yesterday that the council had been aware of the matter since before the audit.
“We took corrective steps to ensure that this error did not occur again. The auditor has said this in his report and is happy that the system of dealing with planning applications has been strengthened to ensure that such an error does not reoccur.”
Fine Gael’s Damien Geoghegan said he was writing to the county manager and wanted answers to the questions the auditors’ report raises.
“The problems highlighted by the auditor need to be addressed. We need to know what happened, who the developers are and who the members of staff are,” he said.
“I am also requesting that all Part V contributions be re-examined immediately by an auditor acting independently of Waterford County Council.”
