Audit into Dorset Council shows 'significant failure' in budget control
The report found budget measures from 2009 are still affecting the council
Last updated 3rd Jun 2025
Poor budget control measures stretch back to 2009 under the previous Dorset County Council and have continued with today’s Dorset Council.
Questions are now being asked about why it went on for so long – and how much it might have cost.
The outcome is said to be some budgets running out of control because of inadequate scrutiny with spending limits being exceeded without proper authorisation or political oversight.
Finance portfolio holder Cllr Simon Clifford (Chickerell) said the council now found itself in the position where it was unable to say, historically, whether or not tens of millions of pounds had been spent properly or whether the council achieved value for money.
Dorset councillors were told that it was a surprise that many of the problems, some of which have yet to be reported on, went on for so long without being highlighted.
Audit and governance committee chair, Cllr Gary Suttle, described the situation as “a catastrophic failure of internal systems.”
An independent report has highlighted the short-comings in budgetary controls at the council with a further report expected towards the end of the summer.
The Lib Dem dominated council say they have tightened up on financial controls since becoming the majority party last year and are bringing in new systems and checks on spending.
Tory group leader on the council Andrew Parry said because council rules around contracts were so complex it had led to only a small pool of companies able to cope with the process – potentially leading to a lack of competition and making value for money difficult to assess.
“Have we set up a framework where in order to expedite work being carried out quickly, we have inadvertently created a system that is the route of least resistance for officers to procure work ?” he said.
Cllr Gary Suttle, chair of the council’s audit and governance committee, which was set up to oversee the council’s work, said he found the whole process ‘frustrating’ and had created difficulties for portfolio holders in sticking to budgets – with, he claimed, budgets being set one day, and then ignored at officer level, the next.
“I have been sat here for a year now being told everything is alright, when it’s not at all. This has highlighted a significant failure within risk management; the systems; and compliance. We will have a report later on which will give us more detail – but audit needs to concentrate more on risk management and compliance and questions regarding the budgetary controls in this council,” he said.
Cllr Suttle said a lot of questions which had been asked in the past seemed to get brushed aside but he was determined to get specific responses in the coming months.
Said former council leader Cllr Spencer Flower: “This isn’t a resource issue, this is a compliance issue; this is a lack of financial control issue; this is a lack of transparency… we need to police the way we go about the work we do within this council.”
Council deputy leader, Dorchester councillor Richard Biggs, said there had been warnings in previous audits, in November 2023 and March 2024, about systems to control spending over set limits.
“There does seem to be a consistent failing in contract management areas … it is concerning that all this seems to have got through the system without being spotted,” he said.
Lyme Regis and Charmouth Green councillor Belinda Bawden said she found the findings of the audit report “completely astonishing and some of the numbers, really shocking”.