Oakham Town Council Faces Scathing External Audit Over Transparency, Errors, and Repeated Failures
 

Oakham Town Council has narrowly avoided a formal financial qualification in its latest external audit, but the newly released report paints a troubling picture of systemic administrative errors, transparency failures, and repeated non-compliance.
 

While external auditor Moore issued an unqualified overall opinion concluding that Sections 1 and 2 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) are in accordance with Proper Practices for the year ending 31 March 2026 the accompanying findings highlight a litany of regulatory breaches.

The auditor found that Oakham Town Council failed to fully meet Section 13(1) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015. This regulation requires the final audited AGAR to be readily available for public access, including online publication.
 

While the council amended Sections 1 and 2 of its 2024/25 return during the review process, only the original version of Section 1 remained visible on the website.
 

The council also failed to publish the mandatory Notice of Conclusion for 2024/25, as required by Section 16 of the regulations.
 

Further complicating public transparency, the annual governance statements and accounting statements were not initially sent with the public rights notice. When a late explanation for a variance was provided, initial values were missing, and public rights periods had to be disrupted and re-commenced.

Several technical accounting errors were flagged in Section 2 (Accounting Statements),

Box 9 of the prior year column (2025) did not agree with figures provided on the previous year's form, and no explanation was given for the change.
 

The altered figures were neither marked nor labelled as 'Restated' to alert readers, which the auditor deemed a breach of proper practices.
 

Because of this unflagged alteration, the auditor noted that a "No" response should have been provided at Assertion 1 on the 2025/26 Annual Governance Statement, rather than the "Yes" submitted by the council.

Basic arithmetic errors were also uncovered: Boxes 1 through 6 failed to add down to Box 7, violating paragraph 2.20 of the Practitioners' Guide. A similar discrepancy appeared in the revised 2025 comparative figures. Internal Governance and Control Deficiencies

Internal controls at the town council have drawn sharp criticism.
 

The internal auditor answered "No" to several control objectives on the AGAR, reflecting ongoing, deep-seated issues surrounding compliance, governance, monitoring, and reporting.
 

The external auditor highlighted that the council has a history of failing to implement all points raised in previous auditor reports.
 

Furthermore, information required for intermediate testing was not provided upon request marking a repeated issue, though the auditor managed to salvage the review using data retrieved directly from the council's website.
 

Despite the severity of the criticisms, the auditor noted that because the current-year figures for 2026 appear correctly stated, these compliance failures should not impact the upcoming 2026/27 return.

Nevertheless, the report makes it clear that Oakham Town Council must urgently tighten its administrative processes. The external auditor expects the council to bring its publishing practices into line with statutory regulations, ensure robust supporting documentation is submitted annually, and fully action plans already in place to resolve internal control failures.
 

https://oakhamtowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Signed-External-Auditor-Report-and-Certificate-2025_26.pdf

 

Personal Statement from Councillor Martin Brookes, Chairman of Oakham Town Council

"While the findings in this external audit report were entirely expected, I am personally very glad that I stood my ground and refused to sign the AGAR due to the serious failings highlighted in our internal audit reports.

It is clear that our locum clerk is working hard to implement necessary improvements and bring us into line with statutory compliance requirements. However, this is proving to be a very slow process, and I personally do not foresee 100% improvement being achieved within this financial year. Unfortunately, this uphill battle is the direct result of years of entrenched failings that have been continuously documented in past audit reports. We have a long way to go to restore full administrative diligence and transparency."