Darn!
We recently learnt that for twenty working days over the summer any member of the public can go along to a council and look through the council’s books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts. You can even make copies of the accounts and documents.
These rights are legally granted thanks to the jolly old Audit Commission Act 1998 (sections 15 – 16) and the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 Regulations 13, 14 & 16.
The rest of the year, you don’t have anything like such free access to this information, so it’s a time to be made the most of, if you’re interested in the detail of what your council is spending its money on – and how much of it it spends.
Ooo … let’s have a peek!
In the interest of openness, we thought this was very exciting, so got in touch with the Isle of Wight council to find out when its books would be opened.
Missed the boat this year
It was with more than some regret that we learnt that we’d missed our chance for this year, as the IWC’s open period had been between 28 June 2010 to 23 July 2010.
They also told us that, “This inspection period was advertised in the IW County Press and the dates were further highlighted in the report that went to the council’s audit committee of June 29.”
Sadly we’d missed both of those opportunities and it left us wondering how many other people had missed those notices too?
We’ve asked them to give VentnorBlog good notice next year, so we can bring it to your attention before the event rather than after it dear reader.
Anyone up for helping?
Is there anyone who would be up for working together looking over information like this, trying to piece it together?
It would suit those who are methodical and like a puzzle or detective work.
