The financial decisions made in private in the run up to Woking Borough Council’s bankruptcy will likely be published in March, forensic accountants have said. Grant Thornton LLP has been combing the council’s books after the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing, and Communities intervened in May 2023 as the borough toppled towards going bust.
Senior councillors pledged to publish the documents, reports, and decisions that had been taken behind closed doors dating back to 2016 when the bulk of the £2 billion of borrowing began. The council has finished its internal review and said it is ready to publish the papers in the interests of increasing “decision-making transparency” but has been told to hold fire until auditors have completed their own value for money investigations.
Grant Thornton’s Joanne Brown said: “We have now concluded the fieldwork for our value for money governance review and are progressing finalising the report. Due to the nature of our reporting, we need to undertake various consultations with interested parties before the report can be finalised and published, in line with our obligations under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.
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“The report will be made public when it has been finalised, which is now likely to be in March 2024. We appreciate that this may be frustrating for residents of Woking, the council and other stakeholders who are keen to see the report’s findings, but the approach we are following is both important and necessary.
“We support the council’s approach to improve transparency on decision making, including publishing historic Part 2 documents, and that the timing of their publication should align to the publication of our value for money governance review report.” Part 2 documents are confidential – in the majority of cases this is because they contain commercially sensitive information that could potentially jeopardise a council’s ability to maximise income.
Traditionally these are kept private and not made available to either the press or the public. The most recent Part 2 papers the council issued were linked to the sale of the former Mclaren building in Victoria Gate – where the precise value of the deal had been kept secret.
According to the council’s statement it is publishing the historic papers to so people can better understand the decisions and actions that have significantly contributed to the financial challenges it faces today. Both the Grant Thornton Value for Money review report and the Part 2 papers will be made publicly available on the council’s website.