Report finds Dorset Council officers ignored financial rules

A report has found that 11 council officers were sacked for disregarding financial rules, with evidence of undeclared gifts and hospitality revealed.

The Dorset Council staff members were brought in by the then Conservative-run council to sort out health and safety issues in local authority buildings in 2022 but were removed in September last year.

The initial budget for their project was £4m but a new report shows the overall cost of health and safety work in council buildings reached around £13m over two years.

The investigation found evidence of “illegal activity or fraud” and “obfuscation and dishonesty by council officers”.

It showed a handful of firms were favoured for work with some fees not being properly authorised, prices inflated and “substantial unnecessary and unjustified costs”.

One example given was a charge of £300 for work which was worth only £20.

The incidents investigated centred around health and safety compliance work in council buildings carried out between December 2022 and October 2024.

The probe into that period has been conducted by the South West Audit Partnership, an independent auditor, and identified “significant weaknesses in governance, financial controls, procurement practices, and oversight” in the authority at that time.

A separate audit into contract and expenditure compliance identified gaps between the council’s decision making and its financial system, “raising concerns about authorisation limits, procurement processes, and the transparency of high-value spending”.

Dorset Council leader Nick Ireland said: “I take the findings of the two external reports extremely seriously.

“Although the original intent of the work carried out from 2022 was to improve safety and address prior shortcomings, the way it was delivered at that time did not meet the standards our residents rightly expect.

“This matter predates the current administration, and I fully support the commitment to transparency and accountability.

“A robust action plan has since been developed.”

Mr Ireland added that the authority wanted to learn from “past mistakes to ensure such failures are never repeated”.

Meetings about the findings have been held behind closed doors, including one earlier this month, with a public meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee likely to be held in October 2025 to look at the findings.