Issues have been raised after £250,000 of constructing supplies have been left unsecured at a Dumbarton council depot for over a YEAR.
Councillors stated they have been “alarmed” and “astonished” after it was revealed UPVC home windows and doorways and timber roof battens have been saved in an open space at websites alongside Elm Highway for greater than 12 months and never adequately protected against theft or harm.
West Dunbartonshire Council has stated that Covid-19 restrictions have been the rationale for the scenario, with the supplies meant to be despatched on to properties for work throughout lockdown.
Elevating her considerations at an audit committee final week, Dumbarton councillor Karen Conaghan of the SNP, stated: “I discovered it fairly alarming that one thing like this had gone on for therefore lengthy.
“I’m questioning what number of years these had been gathered over and what kind of worth there's on these 166 items?
“Moreso what will occur to them? Are they now redundant and scrap or is there something that may be saved out of them.
“I’m additionally within the motion plan to make sure that this doesn’t occur once more. It’s fairly regarding that it might go on for such a prolonged interval with out us realizing about it.
“The place was the failure that allowed that to occur?”
In response, Andi Priestman, WDC’s shared service supervisor for audit and fraud, stated: “The vast majority of the inventory was constructed up on account of Covid-19. The crew have been persevering with to buy substitute home windows on account of their ongoing upkeep programme.
“Nonetheless, as a result of Covid, we have been prevented from with the ability to go and match these. The inventory has constructed up over time, nonetheless they didn’t discover a safe space to retailer the home windows and timber battens.
“Once we carried out the inventory verify that’s when the auditor noticed that there was fairly a big worth of supplies mendacity in an space inside the website itself which was not safe.
“Rapid motion has been taken to safe the inventory.
“A course of is now underway to carry the gadgets into inventory for allocation.
“Our expectation is that any waste will likely be minimised.”
Labour’s Daniel Lennie questioned why the scenario was allowed to come up, as he labelled it “astonishing and unimaginable.”
The Clydebank member stated: “As a storeman myself in a previous life for a few years I discover this positively astonishing and unimaginable.
“New inventory is available in, it’s logged in, it goes out and it’s logged out. There actually shouldn’t be a problem.
“Is our inventory checking hardware too sophisticated to function?”
Ms Priestman replied: “These particular person gadgets have been direct purchases which ought to exit to the property.
“However given the circumstances round lockdown they needed to be saved elsewhere.
“Over time the extent of direct purchases held inside the website will cut back as a result of they’ll begin going out to the properties.”