Audit Commission Critical of CSD Secrecy

Liberal Democrats on Bedford Borough Council have slammed the inaction which could have improved transparency over the council's running of its Commercial Services Department.

Now the latest report by the Audit Commission has found the council still lacking formal adopted business plans for its CSD department. Additionally it recommends key financial information on CSD be included in reports to councillors, as previously recommended by Lib Dems in an effort to increase transparency.

An earlier review by consultants APSE also criticised the Departments lack of both business plans and the information available to councillors. The Lib Dems are angry that there proposals to tackle these issues, put forward in 2004, have largely been ignored.

Speaking on the issue, Lib Dem Deputy Leader, Christine McHugh, said:

"I am very disappointed that the Mayor and his Portfolio holder failed to act upon our suggestions. The Commercial Services Department is the biggest and most high profile department within the council. An external review previously criticised the departments lack of business plan and suggested more information be available to councillors on its activities. Back in 2004 we wrote to the portfolio holder urging him to end the culture of secrecy associated with CSD. There was a real need to steer CSD to a more open and accountable position following the APSE review and media reports. We included a 7 point action plan designed to make decision making clearer and more accountable. This latest report, this time from the Audit Commission, just goes to show that they were wrong to dismiss our concerns so easily. We could have moved forward with this but instead there has been a failure to turn words into actions.

With the Mayor still out of the country we must look to the CSD portfolio holder to find out why there has been a failure to act upon these suggestions, made almost 2 years ago.

The Audit Committee will meet tonight to discuss the findings of the Audit Commissions interim annual audit and inspection letter.