AUDITORS have given Cheshire East Council the all-clear for the first time in four years.

External auditor Mazars has signed off the local authority’s accounts and provided it with an unqualified value for money opinion for 2018-19.

That means CEC is now considered to have the right arrangements in place for it to be financially sustainable and well-governed.

It follows three years in a row that external auditors failed to give CEC an unqualified opinion over concerns about the way the council had been run.

Welcoming the news at Tuesday’s audit and governance committee meeting, Cllr Steven Hogben, Labour, said: “It is a refreshing change that there is an unqualified opinion and long may it continue.

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“I trust that we will find, as the months and years go by, that in fact the systems are robust enough and adequate to continue that record.

“It is somewhat reassuring that the systems we have got will serve us well into the future, and I hope that continues.”

Alastair Newall, senior manager at Mazars, told councillors that the unqualified opinion was ‘a good outcome’.

In making that judgement, Mazars considered CEC’s budget-setting process, how the council keeps on top of its spending and its level of reserves.

It was also satisfied that CEC had ‘good governance to support informed decision-making’ after looking at the authority’s arrangements on whistleblowing, land transactions, procurement and the constitution.

Mr Newall told the committee that the unqualified audit opinion was scrutinised by Mazars in light of the council’s past difficulties – with the firm wanting to be sure it had ‘reached the right conclusion based on the evidence’.

Cllr Rachel Bailey, CEC’s former Conservative leader, praised the council’s audit and finance officers and said it is ‘absolutely marvellous’ to see Mazars recognise the council has ‘the systems in place to run a financially sensible and balanced authority’.

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“I think it sets out a marker for the new administration in the future,” added Cllr Mike Sewart, Conservative.

Grant Thornton, the firm which carried out last year’s external audit, highlighted ‘a number of historic weaknesses’ in CEC’s ability to make decisions in 2017-18.

Issues highlighted included the disciplinary process involving CEC’s former chief executive Mike Suarez, former section 151 officer Peter Bates and former monitoring officer Bill Norman – who have all since resigned following suspension.

Former councillor Howard Murray stepping down as chairman of the investigation and disciplinary committee, potential data breaches, disciplinary procedures involving an unnamed ex-cabinet member and ‘other historic matters’ were also raised as concerns.

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Jan Willis, then-interim section 151 officer at CEC, told the audit and governance committee last July: “Until all of the ongoing investigations come to a conclusion, the auditor is simply not in a position to issue a clean bill of health in that regard.

“It will be for [the auditors] in issuing their opinion on the 2018-19 accounts and subsequent years to reach their own view, as those matters are resolved, about whether they are now satisfied that we have the appropriate arrangements in place.”