Annex A
Leicester East Constituency Labour Party,
Auditors' Report
The auditors are unable to sign the accounts as a
true record, because of the major qualifications which are listed
underneath. These will need to be resolved before the accounts
can be signed. We therefore recommend that the accounts are not
approved or accepted until this is done.
1. The accounts have not been presented in an
acceptable manner. The statement is an income and expenditure
summary, not a balance sheet. The significance of this is shown
by the failure of the accounts to explain what has happened to
the brought forward deficit. It is unclear whether this remains
an unpaid debt, whether it has been paid of by an unnamed benefactor,
or whether it has been written off (or a mixture of all three).
A balance sheet should be an accurate explanation of the financial
situation of an organisation, and such an explanation is missing
from these accounts.
2. The Constituency Labour Party took over the
control of membership for the year of 1990. It is therefore essential
that proper membership records are contained within the accounts.
We have not been given these membership records, despite requesting
these from both the former Treasurer, and the current Secretary.
Membership fees form a major portion of the payments made into
the two bank accounts, which we are unable to verify in the absence
of membership records.
3. In addition to the absence of membership records,
there is no adequate method of recording payments made into the
bank accounts. Again it is therefore impossible to verify payments
made into the accounts. The absence of proper paying in records
is made much worse by processed paying in slips not being returned
by the banks. We suggest that arrangements should be made with
the banks to return paying in slips after processing, to assist
auditing being properly carried out.
4. Payments to reimburse an officer have been
made without proof of expenditure. This is most unsatisfactory,
and the C.L.P. should confirm that it is not appropriate to meet
expenses undertaken by officers without receipts being obtained.
Most items of expenditure can easily be receipted, for example
postage and stationery. Where phone calls cannot be receipted,
these should be logged so that there is some record of how a figure
is arrived at, and justified.
| Pat Stuttard | Paul Gosling
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| Leicester C.L.P. auditors
| 14 February 1991 |
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