COUNCILLORS in Argyll and Bute have demanded assurances that there will be no repeat of the delays and technical issues that affected the latest external audit of the authority.

The audit was carried out by Mazars LLP – who came in for criticism for the impact on council staff of the problems experienced during the exercise.

The company admitted during a meeting of the council’s audit and scrutiny that it had come up against recruitment and technical challenges – and said it had learned lessons which it would carry in to the next audit.

The discussion took place at a meeting of the committee on Thursday, June 13.

Gregory Oduor, Mazars’ engagement manager, told the committee: “Some of the issues were around a new client and having no time to get the team established.

“We had some challenges in recruitment, which contributed to delays, and technical matters arose and took some time to resolve.

“We have agreed on the approach to more significant technical areas, and we do not expect those to come up again. We have had early engagement with council officials.

“In terms of lessons learned from the last year, we have been able to agree what works best for the finance team, and on the meetings we will have and the frequency.

“We now understand the council at a much better level than we did when starting off. We have resources planned in a consistent way from last year, so that should help.”

Councillor Gary Mulvaney (Conservative, Helensburgh Central) responded: “I think it is disappointing when you go in to bid for a contract and in effect you do not understand the organisation, or have the resource in place to complete the audit.

“The effect has not been only on officers, but members as well.

“Officers had multiple delays, had to re-do work, and it was a lot of work and manpower for a very small finance team.

“I can only contrast that with previous audits that seemed to go relatively smoothly, and you had the statutory deadlines.

“To me, these deadlines are non-negotiable and we should not be negotiating them.

“We had members who had dates for meetings that were cancelled. I was the policy lead for finance, so I hear from the section 95 officer [Kirsty Flanagan] of all the impact and pressures they suffered.

“So I think it is critical that we meet the statutory deadlines and we meet the expectations we as members, and our communities, have in these terms.

“I do not want to be too critical, but it would be remiss of us not to raise these things with you, as this is really the only opportunity we get.

“We are looking forward to the second year, hitting targets and statutory key dates. To me, that is fundamental.

“We also look forward to hearing positive reports from our finance team.”

Councillor Reeni Kennedy-Boyle (SNP, Isle of Bute) added: “I endorse Councillor Mulvaney’s comments, but I am looking for further reassurance, because I did not hear it.

“Is the team in place for this year? And the phrase ‘largely consistent’ was used – there were lots of issues last year around the personnel not being in place.

“Nobody can hold a team to ransom, because people do change jobs, but what plans are in place if this team is reduced in resource for any reason?”

Mark Outterside, director of Mazars, said: “We cannot get away from the fact there are not enough qualified auditors nationally to be able to meet the demand.

“But we now have a settled team, when last year we were recruiting during the audit.

“That has been resolved and we now have a full cohort of managers and assistant managers, and new trainees coming in over summer.

“We are investing in our Audit Scotland contract. I did not want to say we would hit the statutory deadline this year in order to manage expectation, which is why I have said December this year to improve next year.

“We will keep everybody informed.”