MAYOR of South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard has suggested that the former police and crime commissioner Dr Alan Billings should apologise for an error that left the police force with a £65m black hole during a spat in a meeting this week.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) which was transferred to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority in May resulted in Mayor Oliver Coppard taking on a dual role.
Mr Coppard’s finance team found a ‘significant’ error in the OPCC’s accounts and future-year budgets.
It was revealed that in recent years £65m has been spent on equipment such as kit for officers, vehicles and IT gear and services.
The work undertaken by the SYMCA finance team has identified that £16m of charges that should have been made to allow for the repayment of this debt so far have been missed and that future payments of £49m have not been included in spending plans going forward.
These problems ‘would appear to represent a fundamental error in accounting practices’, they revealed, and the errors were not identified by annual audit checks from 2020 onwards.
In response, Mr Coppard has asked them to commission an immediate independent review of the accounts of the former OPCC which was then led by Dr Alan Billings to understand how the issue arose.
The pair clashed at a meeting this week, with Mr Coppard ‘gently’ suggesting that Dr Billings should apologise for the error.
During the meeting of the police and crime panel, Dr Billings had asked why his foreword from the annual report had been removed.
He said: “I noticed that the annual report of the PCC for 2023/24 the foreword I wrote has been removed, so can I ask the question of the mayor about why the foreword to the annual report was removed and not included in the report now published?”
Mr Coppard said he was surprised by the question - and said Dr Billings should apologise for the ‘accounting error’ that left a £65m hole in South Yorkshire Police’s finances.
He said: “I’m slightly surprised by the question.
“It’s clear to me that the former police and crime commissioner seems to be struggling a little bit with the transition to his new role.
“But let me make clear - I am now responsible for the functions of the police and crime commissioner, and therefore it is right that I put the the foreword into my own words, as that has been published by the organisation.
“All I would say is, if the former police and crime commissioner is going to make some public announcement, I would gently suggest that it might want to include an apology for the financial state which we found when we took over the office.”
The error is currently being investigated.
