At Monday night’s meeting of the Ventnor Town Council, former Town Clerk for Ventnor, John Farrant, declared the recent Audit investigation into practices of the Town Council and Winter Gardens “unethical” and a “serious breach of practice.”
The five day audit took place back in November 2009, the result of which was a damning report revealing a trail of incompetence and unlawful practices.
No contact from auditors
Mr Farrant, who was one of the UK’s longest serving Town Clerks and retired last year prior to the invesitgation, explained that despite being frequently referred to in the report, he was not once contacted or interviewed by the auditors.
He went on to say that the first he’d heard about the outcome of the investigation was when it was made public two weeks ago.
Inaccuracies could have been avoided
He believed that the way in which the audit investigation took place was unethical and contained several inaccurate statements. Had he been interviewed, he said, much of this could have been avoided.
Mr Farrant went on to give the example that an arrangement regarding approval of cheques (which the report declared unlawful) had been cleared by the Audit Commission some ten years earlier.
Head Auditor offered little in return
Isle of Wight Council officer, George Hook, who was present at the meeting to answer questions, was not able to provide Mr Farrant with much of an answer.
He explained that the auditors had only a short amount of time to go through paperwork and that the report was based on evidence gathered from paperwork they had inspected.
Awaiting council response
We’ve contacted the council for a statement on the allegation that their audit team have behaved unethically, but are still awaiting a response.
