Dumfries and Galloway Council under scrutiny for £107k waste disposal errors
Audit reveals costly mistakes in council's waste management contracts
More than £100,000 of public money has been effectively thrown away by Dumfries and Galloway Council through costly blunders in managing waste disposal contracts, it has been revealed.
An internal audit on the handling of waste uncovered two significant financial errors while reviewing a sample of just 45 invoices.
The first error involved a £22,000 overpayment to a contractor that had been quietly accumulating since 2023. The audit report explains that “one contractor had not been invoicing the council the applied rates, resulting in a £22,000 overpayment to the contractor since March 2023.”
The council’s own financial controller — whose checks invoices against contract rates — was not aware the prices had changed, meaning the overpayment went unnoticed for more than two years.
The next blunder was much more costly.
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The audit report states: “The service continued with the use of a contractor who was not awarded the contract lot. This resulted in an additional £85,000 of costs since March 2023.”
Together, the two errors account for £107,000 in unnecessary spending — and both were only discovered when auditors examined a small random sample of invoices.
The report states: “The council should ensure that the contracts are appropriately implemented within the service.”
The findings come as part of a wider audit of the council’s waste disposal arrangements, which covers services to 77,000 households across the region and handles around 80,000 tonnes of waste every year.
The overall audit opinion was rated “limited” — the second lowest possible rating — meaning that “significant gaps, weaknesses or non-compliance were identified” and that “improvement is required to the system of governance, risk management and control.”
Auditors also found that several waste streams — including food waste and kerbside recyclables such as plastics, cans and paper — have never been put out to competitive tender since the service began in 2021, meaning the council cannot demonstrate it is getting the best value for money.
A live procurement exercise is currently underway to address some of these gaps.
The report will be presented to councillors at the audit, risk and scrutiny committee next week.
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