POOR record keeping in Vale care homes led to mistaken concerns of fraud taking place.

Vale of Glamorgan Council’s governance and audit committee were told about various governance-related concerns in a number of council departments highlighted by auditors at a meeting on Monday, April 22.

The concerns, listed in a report on progress against internal audit risks, included an incomplete audit trail of stock checks at residential homes, no recording of staff meals or wastage, and a lack of guidance for food ordering.

Concerns were also raised in relation to leisure centre contract and performance monitoring and the report states three Vale leisure centres have not had condition surveys undertaken since 2017.

Speaking about the care home records, deputy head of regional internal audit service, Joan Davies, said: “There were concerns within the homes that potentially there could have been fraud or unaccounted for items of stock, so it was quite a focused piece of work that we did.

“The connections and relations that came from the work that we did had to be made because we felt the controls were so weak, we couldn’t with any reliability say ‘yes or no there was any fraud’.

“We did have regard to the amount of money that was being spent and the contracts and the various things that you have raised and that was in our report.

“We will be going back because it was a limited assurance. We will be going back to make sure that has been put in place.

“Hopefully then that will allay fears that there [wasn’t] any fraud and it was in fact that there wasn’t any record or weak controls.”

The other areas of improvement auditors noted about Vale residential care homes include:

No standard ordering practice is in place across care homes, order book orders do not have any financial values attached until invoices are received and no authorisation limits are in place

Multiple retrospective orders are attached to previous authorised orders

Another concern highlighted by auditors in relation to debtors at the council states communication records are not being kept in an easily accessible location, “limiting shared knowledge for debt holding departments and risking a potential loss of data”.

In relation to leisure centres, auditors noted performance monitoring does not take place in line with contractual requirements and quarterly contractor meetings and formal annual reviews have either not taken place or are not documented in line with contract requirements.

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “Relevant council departments are aware of the findings reported at a recent governance and audit committee meeting and have taken steps to address them.

“The manager who oversees residential care homes asked the audit team to review the arrangements for the purchase and stock control of food and a management plan has been put in place based on the conclusions reached.

“Significant progress has been made in all areas identified for improvement and a new summer menu will be launched across all care homes in June.

“Senior members of staff have also met counterparts from Legacy Leisure, the firm responsible for operating the council’s leisure centres, to discuss the issues raised.

“A robust framework to comprehensively monitor performance is currently being drawn up and will be presented at a follow-up meeting scheduled for July.”