£355 per hour – the cost of mystery ‘challenge’ to parish council budget
A parish council’s budget has not officially been signed off by external auditors after a mystery challenge was lodged with the official number crunchers.
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Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council has no choice but to pay the £355-per-hour extra cost of its external audit following the challenge, councillors were told this week.
Councillors were told that the nationally appointed auditor has received correspondence that it must consider before certifying the council’s 2023-24 budget.
Officials told the meeting at Hadley Community Centre on Tuesday (February 4) that the auditor has received ‘challenge correspondence’.
Councillors were told that it has no choice but to pay the fee, whatever it ends up being, and there is no estimate of the number of hours the checking will take.
The council has put aside £3,500 for audit fees in its £714,000 budget for 2025-26.
Councillor Eileen Callear, who chairs the council, said it was something “we have got to do".
“I am sure it will be fine but it costs so much, it is very expensive. But it is important to have that work done. It is one of those things.”
The meeting was told that officials “can’t even second guess” what the challenge was about.
And Councillor Callear added that even though the cost is a negative, the audit is a critical function.
The auditor, PKF Littlejohn of London, told the council that the correspondence was in relation to 2023/24 and/or previous years. That financial year had been previously signed off with no issues.
The accounts can be examined by members of the public at Hadley Community Centre.
