Collective leadership needed to tackle significant audit delays at Clackmannanshire Council

Significant ongoing delays in signing off Clackmannanshire Council’s audited annual accounts mean its leaders are making major decisions about the future without fully understanding its financial position.

For the last five years, unaudited accounts have not been presented to the council on time, and the delays have been worsening. This means the council is making significant choices, including setting budgets and agreeing council tax levels, without the most up to date financial information. This is critical, especially at a time when all councils must make significant savings, with the cost of delivering services rising faster than available funding.

Despite the Accounts Commission and senior officers at Audit Scotland repeatedly raising concerns over the past 18 months, the council’s 2023/24 audited accounts were not signed off until nearly two years after the statutory deadline. As things stand, the accounts for 2024/25 and 2025/26 will also be delayed without significant, collective action by the council’s senior leaders, the external auditors and collaboration between them.

In its latest report, the Accounts Commission is urging the council to explore, at pace, alternative ways of working to support recovery of audit timescales, whilst maintaining quality and accuracy.

Jo Armstrong, Chair of the Accounts Commission said:

An absence of up-to-date audited financial information is a significant risk and concern as the council makes decisions about how local money is spent.

Now the focus must be on the future - strong partnership working with auditors along with collective leadership from officers and councillors are critical to prioritise meeting statutory timescales. Strengthened political oversight of the audit process going forward is vital.