29 July 2007
With the ALMO re-inspection now looming near, can you tell me how you plan to prove to the inspectors that People 1st does qualify for the £45 million funding, even though there are serious concerns over exactly how arms' length the organisation is from the Council. I refer to the £557,000 you have not bothered to reclaim from People 1st or add in to the annual statement of accounts.
There was one overpayment made to People 1st which is one too many, but this was immediately spotted and a credit note raised to reclaim it. Unfortunately, due to the way the People 1st payments are made, this did not get offset against future invoices. This problem was also spotted and repayment has now been made. However, this was after the 31st March 2007 and therefore after the end of the financial year. This overpayment was fully reflected in the statements of accounts of both organisations. Due to size of the accounts and sums of money passing through this was a material amount to People 1st and therefore had to be separately disclosed as a note, whereas this was not the case for Slough Borough Council. This has no bearing on the arms' length nature of People 1st.
