THE infamous 2018/19 accounts will not be ‘reputationally good’ for Slough Borough Council, councillors have been told.

Many of the cash-strapped council’s woes were identified when external auditors Grant Thornton were probing the accounts in question.

It found the council’s finance team had ‘insufficient skills or capacity’ to produce statements or working papers of quality and had ‘inadequate’ governance arrangements over its subsidiary and joint venture companies.

The 2018/19 accounts, which are three years overdue, are still with Grant Thornton after the firm refused to give the final sign-off.

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However, after “considerable challenges” in examining the books, primarily due to poor or non-existent recordkeeping, chief finance officer Steven Mair said the 2018/19 accounts could be completed early next month.

Speaking at Thursday’s customer and community scrutiny panel, Mr Mair said: “Reputationally, it will not be a good report.”

He also said the accounts have been done “extremely well” given the circumstance and the government will “nonetheless” accept the accounts when completed.

In order to use capital money the council received from asset sales to pay off its £760m borrowing debt and bridge its budget blackhole, it needs to give the government confidence in its financial position by having the 2018/19 books and subsequent accounts signed off.

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Elsewhere at the meeting, the council has to pay back £266m of loans it borrowed from other local authorities by September 2023.

Councillors heard not all of the money accumulated from asset sales will be used to pay off that debt but the council is considering borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board, which is a body of the government that provides loans to public bodies, to help pay this off despite its interest rate spiking in recent months.