Herefordshire Council found school staff claims didn’t add up (From Hereford Times)

Herefordshire Council found school staff claims didn’t add up

7:00am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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EDUCATION workers are not doing their sums, according to a council report on expenses.

Herefordshire Council has hailed the success of a clampdown into wrongly filledout expense forms.

Councillors heard at a meeting last Friday that 85 out of 1,100 travel and food claims were rejected at some point last year.

But the worst culprits now have a perfect record – while the number of incorrect forms has plummeted to seven.

Tony Ford, chief internal officer, said the biggest offenders were staff in the children and young people’s directorate.

The audit and governance committee heard that claims involving “insufficient” parking and food receipts were among those returned.

Mileage claims of 1,000 miles or more were checked by payroll staff, while claims without a VAT receipt were rejected.

Mr Ford admitted that some mistakes were genuine, but claimed the rejections were proof that the system was working.

“You have to realise that when you have 1,100 claims a month a few aren’t going to meet the criteria,” said Mr Ford.

“Looking at my information the worst offender was the children and young person’s directorate.

“But because of what we’ve put in place they are now doing it correctly. The important point is they didn’t get through the system.”