Glasgow City Council workers claimed £1m in travel expenses in a year, audit finds

Council workers claimed nearly £1m worth of travel expenses this financial year as an audit found some staff got petrol money back without receipts being submitted correctly.

During the audit only two out of 12 workers’ petrol receipts were sent to the council’s customer and business services department in line with policy.

And in five out of 12 claims sampled there was a lack of clarity over where the journey started and ended.

A meeting heard some of the petrol receipts were found “locally” but others could not be located.

A councillor raised concerns about the issues as the internal checks on travel expenses were discussed during yesterday’s finance and audit scrutiny committee.

Committee chair Jill Brown raised concerns about not knowing where the start and end of a journey is in relation to travel expenses.

Councillor Brown added: “It is noted in the report there is a risk of fraud where this arises” and pointed out for five employees there “was a lack of clarity” over the journey and only two had sent in petrol receipts.

She said the combination of not knowing where people are going to and from with no receipt and the claim being signed off gives the perception there could be fraud.

The council’s head of audit and inspection Duncan Black said: “The key control is the authorisation control of the line manager.”

He added: “For it to be a fraudulent claim you are looking at collusion between the individual and the line manager. The fraud risk is probably quite low.”

He raised concerns about the audit trail, however.

Councillor Brown, Labour, also said there is “lax control” over Zonecards

The audit found in a sample of 69 expense claims, £1,000 worth of Zonecards were reimbursed despite policy stating they should be purchased through the council’s Executive Compliance Unit.

The audit report said actions would be taken including managers and staff being reminded about policies. Between April and December the council paid out nearly £1m in mileage and travel expenses.