ESSEX County Council has been condemned in an official report for not carrying out basic procedures properly.

Local government watchdog the Audit Commission investigated six areas where the council received a Government grant.

Despite the council spending tens of millions of pounds on managers and consultants, it often failed to meet basic standards of accounting, proper practice and checking on work.

Failings included: - When it asked for information, in nine cases the commission says it received it late and it contained errors.

- For the third year running, contracts for the council’s Surestart programme, worth £31million, were not awarded in accordance with rules which required a full tender process.

- The council, and those it gave grants to, did not keep proper records of where the money was spent, and council accounts were littered with errors.

- On the Economic Partnership programme, which is worth £2.6million, the council failed to carry out checks on three projects to ensure the money had been properly spent.

- While the council has a system to ensure it charges other organisations for its staff time, it often did not follow them and was not consistent when it did.

Councillor responsible for finance David Finch said the council took such criticisms seriously and has appointed an officer to ensure such mistakes were eradicated.

He said the council receives more than £1billion in government funding for a variety of areas, and there were obvious challenges in ensuring the proper procedures were followed.

He said: “The most important thing is our accounts have been passed with no problem by the Audit Commission and there is nothing in this report that points to substantial mismanagement or wrongdoing. “However, we have tightened our controls and procedures.”

Charlotte Linacre, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The council is failing taxpayers by performing poorly and spending irresponsibly.

“There are rules about how grants should be given out because these act as safeguards against taxpayers’ money being abused.”