Checks around funding grants for city wards are “pretty strict now” after years without appropriate oversight that could have led to public money being lost.
Cllr Jane Corbett, deputy mayor and Liverpool Council cabinet member for finance and resources, told a meeting of Liverpool Council’s audit committee that new steps have been put in place at the local authority to better manage and check on how grants are being handed out to community groups from the Mayoral Neighbourhood Fund (MNF). A report to councillors revealed public funds could have been lost owing to a lack of safeguards around the near £1m pot handed out across wards in the city by the council.
Until an internal audit three years ago, the funding was not “regularly or consistently” accompanied by checks or paperwork, nor were assessments undertaken on the recipient organisations to ensure they were legitimately constituted. Cllr Corbett said following the report in 2019, new steps are now being adhered to, including checks made to accounts of organisations receiving council funds and if a grant is of more than £5,000, "another level" of due diligence is actioned. She added it is “pretty strict now”.
