Bedford Borough Council has announced a delay to the public inspection of its accounts for the last financial year.
The council spends public money (from national and local taxes, as well as charges to service users) and it has to show local residents and taxpayers how that money is spent.
When it has finished preparing accounts for the financial year the council must make them available for inspection for a 30 working-day period.
This includes every invoice, payment and receipt registered in the council’s ledgers (it may not be possible to inspect information which is protected by commercial confidentiality).
Via a notice on its website (May 31), the council has announced that the inspection period has been delayed.
The notice said: “Under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 regulations 9 and 15, the commencement period for the exercise of public rights to inspect the draft 2022/2023 accounts and related documents (based on an account’s completion date of May 31,2023), should include the first 10 working days of June, with inspection dates being between June 1 and July 12, 2023.”
“The audit of the 2021/2022 accounts is still in progress due a [sic] variety of complex factors arising from audit delays in previous years.
“This has impacted on the commencement of the 2022/2023 accounts and we will therefore not be in a position to commence the period for the exercise of public rights as set out above.”
The council now aims to publish the draft 2022/2023 accounts on Friday, June 23.
Local electors have further rights to those who are an “interested person” in relation to inspecting the accounts, and can ask the auditor formal questions about the accounts, and can also make objections.
