You see, these were the minutes of the first meeting of this committee since Somerset County Council achieved its latest distinction. That is, the National Award for tossing away more taxpayers' money in Iceland than any other LibDem run Council in the whole country.
In fact, they threw away two-and-a-half times more than their closest rival for this prestigious trophy. The runners up, Cambridge, only lost a measly nine million - even less than the Audit Commission.
Needless to say there was no hint of apology or humble pie or embarassment. In fact once again there was absolutely no mention of Iceland at all.
There was, however, an astonishing crypto-criticism of ... wait for it ... the very same Audit Commission!
It went like this "... both Members and Officers expressed disappointment that the external auditors findings had been received in such proximity to the 30 September deadline ..."
Apparently this meant that " ... the nature of the discussion at the September meeting could have create (sic.) a poor perception if members of the public had been in attendance ..."
Hmm. A poor perception of what, exactly? Are they trying to say it's a good job none of us ignorant yokels were at the meeting, because they did something wrong, and the auditors actually noticed? That would be a first!
Anyway, before anyone starts cracking jokes about Enron and Ponzi Schemes, let us commiserate with the poor old Council. That's because down at the Dog & Duck we are having problems with our own auditor.
All we are trying to do is a simple summary of all the savings announced by SCC this year, and set out a broad overview of what they mean for the average Council Tax payer. It's not finished yet, but is a real proper job exercise, with a spreadsheet and everything.
Meanwhile Albert Einstein (our auditor) is still tearing his hair out because he reckons 17+140 does not equal 200, and is being a general pain in the arse. However, we will publish it this week. That's a promise. Audit or no audit.
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