Most councils will not openly promote the fact that the law requires them to make their accounts available for scrutiny. But they are and many councils have subscribed to a scheme make them open to you online - but here's the catch - THEY ONLY HAVE TO MAKE THEM AVAILABLE FOR 20 DAYS A YEAR.
This seems to be nonsense to me. Why aren't ALL councils required to make them available online and permanently?
Nevertheless, it does give you the right to see where every penny of your council tax is being spent - not just amounts of £500 or more. Unless you have an eye for accounts you may find it difficult to understand how the information has been compiled but you will probably still be able to uncover some interesting - and often seemingly unnecessary spending sprees.
Many people do not realise that they have a right to know what councils are spending your money on. To assist you with finding out, an online search engine has been created to tell you when you have a right to inspect the information that should link directly to information provided by more than 280 local authorities. Despite the law stating that councils must provide this information, not all have signed up to be included on the search engine. Perhaps they should.
If you want to find out when you can inspect your council's accounts online
I am grateful to the Tax Payers' Alliance for releasing this information.
Pity that more people don't take this up, though it's difficult to understand what the figures mean. Maybe stop more of the "non" jobs being created.
ReplyDeleteRon
www.recommended.net