Dudley council managers slammed in damning report

The alarming verdict was delivered on July 8 to the first meeting of the council’s Audit and Standards Committee since the local elections.

Graham Harrison, the council’s head of audit and risk management services, said he could only provide a ‘limited’ assurance in the council’s framework of governance, management and internal controls which he explained meant there are significant weaknesses in the authority’s management systems and how they are applied.

Mr Harrison said: “Agreed audit actions are not being addressed by management on a timely basis and in line with time scales set.”

He continued that a high proportion of reviews in council departments had a negative outcome on ‘the effectiveness of the control environment’ and added: “This has been the case for a number of years and although raised with senior management and Audit and Standards Committee very little improvement has been made.”

The conclusions from the council’s own internal auditor back up findings from a Local Government Association review in 2023 which said:  “There is evidence of good work within the Internal Audit Team but there is an urgent need to ensure this is acted on to improve the internal control and assurance environment.”

Mr Harrison concluded that he ‘felt he had no choice but to provide a negative opinion’ and found support from committee member, Cllr Shaukat Ali.

Cllr Ali said: “You do not need to apologise about your opinion, you need to tell it like it is.

“Not only are you saying there is a problem within the council, the problem appears to be that the message has not flowed through the chief executive’s office downward.”

Cllr Jackie Cowell told Mr Harrison: “Time and time again we have seen unimplemented actions, you could do the best job in the world but if they take no notice nothing is going to change.”

The committee resolved to write to the council’s chief executive demanding a response to the report before the next meeting.