BRUM ACCOUNTS GET "YELLOW CARD"

09-02-2010

Don’t say we told you, but The Stirrer understands that the District Auditor is about to sign off Birmingham Council’s accounts for 2008/09 and apparently they will be “qualified” – in football terms that's effectively a “yellow card” calling into question the local authority’s financial competence.

This does put Birmingham one up on the European Union, where the accounts haven’t been signed off for years – but if our sources are accurate, it underlines the questionable nature of the Council’s financial records, and its underlying systems and procedures.

Only a few days ago the City was spinning that the District Auditor had actually praised their financial processes.

Expect senior officers to claim that this is a technical issue about the valuation of assets which has existed in previous years.

However, it has also coincided with first full year of Voyager - the new and hugely controversial financial ledger system introduced as part of Business Transformation.

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