LIBERAL Democrats have blasted an auditors’ report which showed staff at Devon County Council were still being paid after they had left the authority.

Exminster councillor Alan Connett says he and fellow councillors were ‘shocked’ by the discovery.

Auditors gave the council a ‘roasting’ over the ‘failures’ which also revealed the council was paying expenses to staff without having the receipts to prove the expenditure was actually made and travel costs were being claimed without saying what the trip was for.

Cllr Connett, who sites on the council’s audit committee, said: ‘I was shocked to read the reports about what is happening at County Hall.

‘People across Devon will be stunned that the council is even failing to check expenses before paying them.’

The report also showed 78 per cent of claims were authorised without a valid receipt; 77 per cent of expenses claims, totalling £267,000, were authorised without a clear explanation of how it is in line with council policy and 27 per cent of claims looked at were above the council limit for meals and out of pocket expenses.

In one department staff sickness absence shot up from 164 days between April and October 2023 to 365 days in the same period in 2024.

Checks by the independent auditors, showed some staff continued to be paid after they had left the council.

Cllr Connett continued: ‘Thankfully, it is a small number of people who were overpaid when they left the council.

‘However, the worry is that if it happening in one department could it be happening, unseen, in other County Hall departments.

‘We were assured that the £11,239 overpaid is being paid back on instalment plans - apart from £200 which has been written off by the council.

‘The amount may appear small - and thank goodness for that, but it shouldn’t be happening at all.

‘Reading the report for the Audit councillors, it felt like every page you turned there was a new revelation about financial failures at County Hall.’

Another, for example, describes how an interim member of staff had their contract extended on the basis it would not be extended again.

In fact the contract was extended further and approval given.

The report also shows that the longest serving interim member of staff has been at County Hall for two years and the longest serving consultant for three years.

The report says Devon County Council spends around £10.7 million a year on agency workers.

Cllr Caroline Leaver, Leader of the Liberal Democrats group on Devon County Council said: ‘At a time when every penny really matters and County Hall is demanding more council tax from already hard-pushed residents, we would all expect the tightest of grips on the expenditure.

‘The auditors have given the county council a roasting - and rightly so.

‘What we see in the auditors report, are frankly shocking examples that will concern everyone.

‘Money is being wasted and the systems to stop it are simply either not place or not being observed.’

A Devon County Council spokesman said: ‘While some issues such as non-compliance or scope for improvement were identified, the committee concluded that they are reasonably assured on the adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls and believe that there is a generally sound system of governance, risk management and control in place.’

The spokesman added that the auditors also gave the audit report a green rating’ which means things are generally well run and the committee were ‘reasonably assured’ that there is a generally sound system of governance, risk management and control in place.