Cheques and balancing acts

The Finance, Audit & Business Improvement Scrutiny Board of Swansea Council – a body probably unsuitable for asthmatics – today receives a report on how businessman Alun Thomas mistakenly received a cheque for £121,936.90 from the local authority back in March.

The report concludes that ISiS, a newish computerised payments system extolled by Lib Dem cabinet member Mary Jones and her techy minions managed to screw up. Or to be more exact, the people using the system screwed up inasmuch as the person creating the cheque got the details wrong and the 2 other people responsible for re-checking the details also got it wrong.

There are no significant measures suggested to prevent a repeat occurrence other than a recommendation that procedures which are already in place are actually enforced. Indeed the only workable sanction appears to be that the money was recoverable through the courts if Mr Thomas had decided to keep schtum and cash the cheque.

Not much of safeguard – and not much of a system after all, it seems.