Correspondence with Ammanford Town Council for fiscal year 19/20

Wales Audit Office did not have the information requested.

Dear Wales Audit Office,

Once again I'm looking for audited accounts of Ammanford Town Council along with any correspondence between the Audit Office/Auditor General or subcontractors acting for them (eg letters to the effect of "send your accounts", "your accounts are late", "why are your accounts still late, send them", "send your accounts or we'll..." and any replies).

An independent Councillor mentioned at tonight's Full Council meeting that correspondence had been received, asking for this to be Minuted and that he'd been prevented from tabling motions for the Meeting (the first in four months) by the Clerk/RFO (contrary to Standing Orders).

In light of the coronavirus pandemic I am aware that the Wales Audit Office offered an extension of time to Town & Community Councils, on condition that the work was in hand and that the public were notified (20 March 2020). Sadly the public has been kept in the dark about the state of finances at the Council and there has been no visible reporting. During the lockdown the Rialtus laptop was left behind in the Council offices, and the only crumbs of financial probity were through wobbly spreadsheets briefly screen-shared at infrequent Council meeting (tiny font, scrolling up and down). Concern has been raised about financial controls, such as the new Clerk & RFO buying himself a rally-style chair ("must have accessory for any petrol head"). The focus of tonight's meeting was to agree a backdated payrise for the Clerk/RFO. I'm therefore interested in what involvement Wales Audit has had, both for the last financial year and since.

Yours faithfully,
D Morris

Information Officer, Wales Audit Office

Dear Mr Morris

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information in your email below.

I am considering your request in accordance with the procedures set out on the Audit Wales website at: http://www.audit.wales/openness-and-tran....

The procedures are intended to ensure that requests are dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Code of Practice set under section 45 of the 2000 Act, the Data Protection Act 2018 and other relevant legislation.

I shall write to you again once I am able to provide a substantive response, though I may write to you before then if I need to clarify your request.

Please note that we have a policy of publishing in a disclosure log on our website information that we provide in response to requests where we consider that this is in the public interest. We will not, however, publish personal information if this would be unfair and so breach the first data protection principle. In line with this, we will generally not disclose the identity or other personal information of requesters. We will, however, disclose the identity of requesters if this is in the public interest and doing so would be fair, such as in the case of holders of public office. If you have any concerns regarding inclusion of our response to you in the disclosure log, please let me know.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, you are welcome to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Yazmin Steelandt-Humphries  
Y Gyfraith a moeseg || Law & Ethics
Ffôn || Tel: 02920 320514
www.archwilio.cymru || www.audit.wales

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Information Officer, Wales Audit Office

Dear Mr Morris

I am writing in response to your request for information dated 24 November 2020 in which you requested information regarding correspondence with Ammanford Town Council.

I have considered your request in accordance with the procedures set out on the Audit Wales website at: http://www.audit.wales/openness-and-tran... and have found that we do not hold information matching this description for 2019-20. We were completing the 2018-19 audit during 2019-20.

I have relayed your concerns about financial probity to the audit team, so that they can keep them in view in the course of their work.

If you have any queries, or questions about my handling of your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Yazmin Steelandt-Humphries  
Y Gyfraith a moeseg || Law & Ethics
Ffôn || Tel: 02920 320514
www.archwilio.cymru || www.audit.wales

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Dear Wales Audit Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Wales Audit Office's handling of my FOI request 'Correspondence with Ammanford Town Council for fiscal year 19/20'.

I am disappointed at the response that I've received from your office, it seems that you have been deliberately evasive.

On re-reading my request I do note that the Subject line is misleading, I had meant to say "fiscal year 18/19". I guess I've been up to my neck in preparing company books for FY19/20 in time to pay corporation tax by the December 2020 deadline, and self assessment by January 2021. I have made an obvious mistake in the subject/summary line, forgetting that a public sector bodies work so far in the past. In the body of my request I did provide considerable context, referencing the WAO notice sent in March 2020, which related to the FY18/19 period that you response notes. It seems to me that the Wales Audit Office has (uncharacteristically in this instance) failed in its duty to provide advice and assistance, per s16 of the 2000 FOI Act. You may find the following guidance from the ICO helpful:

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

It would seem that you could have clarified the year in question quite quickly after I made the request, had that been a genuine concern.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

D Morris

Information Officer, Wales Audit Office

Dear Mr Morris

I am writing to acknowledge your email below, and confirm this has been passed on for review.

Yours sincerely

Yazmin Steelandt-Humphries  
Y Gyfraith a moeseg || Law & Ethics
Ffôn || Tel: 02920 320514
www.archwilio.cymru || www.audit.wales

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Martin Peters, Wales Audit Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Morris,

 

Further to our acknowledgement of 16 December 2020 of your request of 15
December 2020 for a review of our handling of your request for information
of 24 November 2020 ([1][FOI #708339 email]) (our
ref IR759), I have concluded my review and am writing to set out my
conclusions.

 

Your request of 24 November 2020 was for:

 

…correspondence between the Audit Office/Auditor General or subcontractors
acting for them (eg letters to the effect of "send your accounts", "your
accounts are late", "why are your accounts still late, send them", "send
your accounts or we'll..." and any replies).

 

As you note in your request for review, the subject line of your 24
November 2020 request was:

 

Freedom of Information request - Correspondence with Ammanford Town
Council for fiscal year 19/20

 

I note that in your request for review you say that you did not intend to
refer to 2019-20 and that you intended to refer to 2018-19. You say that
this was an obvious mistake and that you provided considerable context,
referencing the WAO notice sent in March 2020, which related to 2018-19.
You also say that it seems to you that we have been deliberately evasive
and have failed in our duty to provide advice and assistance (required by
section 16 of the 2000 FOI Act). You say that we could have clarified the
year in question quite quickly after you made the request, had that been a
genuine concern.

 

I have reviewed the Wales Audit Office communication with town and
community councils of 20 March 2020 and note that it refers to
arrangements for the 2019-20 accounts. It therefore seems to me that it
was not obvious that your reference to 2019-20 was a mistake. Furthermore,
in dealing with your 24 November 2020 request, two WAO colleagues read
your request, and to them it seemed clearly to be a request in respect of
2019-20. Having spoken to them, I am satisfied that in taking your request
at face value they had no intention to be evasive. As the ICO notes on
page 11 of the section 16 guidance that you referred us to:

 

where the request is clear there is no need for the authority to exercise
its right to seek clarification under section 1(3), and therefore no duty
under section 16 to provide advice and assistance to help the requestor
provide that clarification

 

I have therefore concluded that there was no failure to provide advice and
assistance under section 16 of the Act.

 

I also note that you made a further request for information on 15 December
2020 in identical terms to your request of 24 November 2020, except for
the subject line referring to “fiscal year 18/19”
([2][email address]) (our ref IR763). We sent
you information meeting that further request on 13 January 2020.
Therefore, regardless of any question about assistance, we have provided
you with the information that you say you intended to request in November
2020.

If you remain of the view that our handling of your request of 24 November
2020 was not in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have
right under section 50 of the Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a review. The Information Commissioner would normally expect you to
have exhausted our internal complaints procedures before dealing with such
an application. It may therefore be helpful if I say that I consider that
you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure.

The Information Commissioner’s contact details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

email : [3][email address]  

 

Tel: 01625 545745

Further guidance may be found on the Information Commissioner’s website:
[4]https://ico.org.uk/.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Peters

Pennaeth y Gyfraith a Moeseg || Head of Law & Ethics

[5]www.archwilio.cymru || [6]www.audit.wales

 

 

Ysgrifennwch ataf yn Gymraeg neu’n Saesneg

Please write to me in Welsh or English

 

 

References

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1. mailto:[FOI #708339 email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://ico.org.uk/
5. http://www.archwilio.cymru/
6. http://www.audit.wales/