It's a case of 'don’t do as we do' in advice from Weymouth and Portland Borough Council to the new unitary council.

The borough, as well as West Dorset and North Dorset councils, has been criticised by auditors for the way they deal with one aspect of financial accountancy.

But although the borough says it will carry on as it now does – it is asking the new Dorset Council to follow the policy it doesn’t, as recommended by auditors in their annual report.

KMPG senior auditor Ian Pennington has told the councils that he believes they should change the practice of financial journals not requiring authorisation before they are posted within the ledger.

He told the borough council’s audit committee on Monday evening: “We think the journals ought to be authorised before being put in the ledger. You operate a detective system rather than a preventative system. You say it would be too expensive and is low risk but I still believe you should put these measures in place.”

Despite the concerns the auditors confirmed that no errors had been found in the 2017-18 accounts or in the previous year and praised the council for the way it has made savings, run a balanced budget and provided value for money.

In their annual report the auditors recommend that all journals should be prepared and reviewed by separate finance staff to ensure that they are appropriate and have been authorised:“This will reduce the risk that journals are posted to incorrect accounts and ultimately prevent misstatements in the financial statements.”

But the officer who oversees the process at the councils, Jason Vaughan, say the change is not necessary. In his response to the auditor’s recommendations he said: “Journals are restricted to appropriately qualified staff and are not available to people outside of the finance team. There is a comprehensive budget monitoring process in place which would identify the budget holder or relevant accountancy officer if an incorrect journal had been posted.

“As journals only move existing expenditure it is felt these compensating controls are sufficient. Additional authorisations would be a waste of resources.”

The committee adopted a recommendation from Cllr Tony Ferrari recommending that the new Dorset Council, which comes into being in April 2019, adopt the preventative approach to journals as recommended by the auditors.

Mr Vaughan agreed that the process might be more appropriate for the larger, new, council: “It’s a judgement call…for us the cost of doing it is not worth the extra expense and there’s low risk. Dorset Council is very different.”