District Auditor Alerted Over Manchester's Missing £421,000

12.45.00pm GMT Tue 2nd Feb 2010

Cllr Shannon has raised Lib Dem concerns with the District Auditor

Manchester Liberal Democrats have asked the District Auditor to investigate the loss of £421,000 of City Council funds due to Labour's incompetence.

A report a meeting last Friday to Greater Manchester's Council Leaders (AGMA) has revealed an astonishing accounting blunder. Local Councils fund "Marketing Manchester" to attract business and tourism to the conurbation. Manchester Council should pay 35% and other 9 Councils 65% between them. But since 2004, Manchester has mistakenly paid 65% and the other 9 Councils only 35%, meaning that Manchester has overpaid £421,000.

Worse still, at the AGMA meeting it was agreed that the overpayment would not be repaid to Manchester. The City's leadership admitted that they will not be asking for the money back! Labour's Deputy Council Leader Jim Battle (who attended representing Manchester) failed to call for the money to be refunded. The minutes of the AGMA meeting record that Manchester's leadership "kindly agreed to waive the overpayment."

Manchester Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Councillor Paul Shannon said:

"This is a scandalous error. Manchester does not have spare cash to dish out to other more wealthy boroughs. With our high levels of poverty, deprivation and unemployment, Manchester needs every penny it can get. Frankly, Labour's Richard Leese and Jim Battle are "Robin Hood in reverse" - they are robbing the poor to give to the rich! "

Councillor Shannon concluded:

"It's bad enough to lose £420,000 in the first place, but to not bother to claw it back is disgraceful. We cannot afford to lose £421,000. We are calling for a thorough independent review to explain how this happened, and steps must be taken to prevent its repetition. The people of Manchester cannot afford Labour's financial incompetence."