A DAMNING report on a cash-strapped council’s financial 2018/19 accounts could cost nearly one million pounds, according to a top finance chief.

Slough Borough Council could end up throwing away £800,000 on external auditor Grant Thornton’s long overdue report on the infamous books.

Originally, accountants were estimating that the local authority could spend in excess of £695,000 on the 2018/19 accounts but the council’s most senior financial officer Steven Mair expects it cost over £100,000 more.

Grant Thornton issued an unprecedented disclaimer of opinion to the 2018/19 accounts, which were rewritten five times.

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This means they could not obtain sufficient or appropriate financial statements to draw their conclusions or support their opinions on the accounts due to inadequate record keeping and missing information.

Speaking at an overview and scrutiny meeting on Thursday, February 23, Cllr Paul Kelly (Con: Haymill & Lynch Hill) asked how the council will make a £400,000 saving in the audit budget when the 2018/19 accounts are expected to cost over £695,000.

Mr Mair said the audit fee relates to 2018/19 accounts and is fully costed for even for the 2019/20 accounts, which are also predicted to be very expensive and damning.

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He said: “Given that the auditors at the moment are referencing a minimum fee of £695,000 that they said would increase, I don’t know to what as they didn’t know but it’s quite possible to go up to £800,000.

“That is perfectly reasonable to assume that when you have a completely clean audit, it will be considerably less than that.”

However, he predicted the 2023/24 accounts will be the first set of accounts that will begin with a fully clean slate and will cost the council less.