WEYMOUTH and Portland Borough Council chief executive Tom Grainger was today criticised for not publicly naming those responsible for the authority's cash crisis.

An internal investigation into a £541,000 housing benefit black hole, contained within the borough's estimated £1.5m shortfall for 2003/04, has blamed the money woes on bad accounting and a lack of financial leadership by officers.

But Mr Grainger, who led the inquiry, has refused to name publicly the people involved, saying further details will be in a confidential report only available to councillors.

In an internal investigation, jointly carried out with West Dorset director of corporate resources David Clarke, Mr Grainger says that lessons have been learned and that systems have been put in place to ensure it never happens again.

Councillors had called for those responsible to be named, claiming that the former finance and housing services director David Furley had been the only person singled out so far.

In his report Mr Grainger says: "Aside from the general overview of the director of finance and housing services, there was insufficient ownership of the quality of the overall final accounts.

"Roles were disaggregated and the staff involved did not collaborate closely enough, or seek to compare the draft final accounts with the initial information nor compare with trends of benefit expenditure and other important factors."

He also said that staff were lacking specialist knowledge to use the computer system dealing with housing benefit.

However, Coun Brian Ellis said he is not satisfied with the investigation and wants to see it extended to incorporate all council departments.

"I don't particularly want to see someone as a whipping person but if senior officers are at fault then taxpayers have a right to know who they are. If the errors have happened at a lower level then perhaps training needs to be looked at," he said.

The investigation, to be debated by the council's management committee on January 7, says problems arose when three un-named people entered expenditure and estimated income figures in accounts that closed in May/June 2002.

The expenditure was predicted as being much higher than it actually was when the final housing benefit subsidy was calculated in August and September this year.

The report adds that there were shortcomings by individual members of staff within the finance and housing department.

Mr Grainger says: "Although the former director Mr Furley was involved in the closure and review of accounts, he also placed reliance on assurances given to him. Individual members of staff had a varied degree of involvement in the process and there were some shortcomings."

Mr Grainger says staff responsible for the accounts did not work closely enough together and no-one within the council was in total control of housing benefit accounting.

The investigation recommends a series of proposals to improve the council's financial and housing structure.

They include identifying someone to deal with all housing benefit financial issues who should then be given full training. In a statement, Mr Grainger said: "The report identifies the mistakes that have been made and what needs to be changed to prevent it happening again. It is not right to name individuals, but where it is appropriate managers have been asked to follow the agreed disciplinary processes."

Coun Kay Wilcox, the council's finance spokesman, said: "The new process will clearly take time for officers to adjust to but the important thing is that we don't get in another situation like this."

Conservative group leader Nigel Reed said: "While there are some officers at fault, publicly naming them would divert from the real issue which is how some of the larger groups on the council helped get us into this mess."