“Typing error” resulted in €130k Louth council house being valued at €1.33 million

An audit report carried out on Louth County Council’s Annual Financial Statement for 2021 found that the cost of a housing unit included in fixed assets was overstated by €1.2m.

By law, councils are required to provide all accounting records to an independent local government auditor to oversee and check their Annual Financial Statements. 

In her response, detailed in the report, Louth County Council Chief Executive Joan Martin accounted for the mistake by saying:

“The overestimate resulted from a typing error where the value of the property was entered as €1.33m instead of €130k – this error has been corrected in 2022.”

A review of the council’s fixed assets and works in progress found other issues in the Annual Financial Statement including a case in which legal titles remained outstanding with regard to a housing unit included in fixed assets, acquired under the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process, due to an incorrect date having been included on the original vesting order.

The Chief Executive acknowledged that registration of the property was not yet complete “due to an error in the dating of the vesting order by the law agent” and that the matter was being addressed. 

The report further noted that “a small number of assets require review to ensure their inclusion in fixed assets in the AFS, capitalised at the correct amount and insured.”

The auditor also drew attention to the fact that a road constructed and completed remains included in Work In Progress at a cost of €1.2m. 

The report stated that all four of the matters above were not corrected in the AFS, but have no impact on the income and expenditure account.

In her response, Chief Executive Joan Martin stated that all outstanding matters relating to fixed assets will be reviewed to ensure accurate inclusion in the 2022 AFS.