A SERVING county councillor has accused the local authority of not paying more than 65 Abergavenny based businesses, charities and organisations, within the target of 90 days as set by the Welsh Government.

Figures obtained by Councillor Armand Watts following a Freedom of Information request has revealed that from April 2011 to date, 768 accounts had not been paid within the target period throughout the authority's area

Councillor Watts added: I may be an elected to my role as councillor, but as part of this I feel I need to scrutinise the workings of Monmouthshire County Council.

"What we have here is a deeply disturbing situation. There have been signs of this practice increasing as long as two to three years ago. And nothing has been done since to increase the speed at which payments are issued. Many of these businesses rely upon this income which harms the company or organisation's cash flow.

"The companies could claim interest against the authority, but they have to balance this against maintaining their working relationship with the authority, which often represents some 20 percent of the company's income.

The authority needs to invest in more staff to process and administer these accounts so that they can achieve the Welsh Government's target of 90 days.

This whole situation needs a major overhaul and the separate directorates need to do some joined up thinking to resolve this issue."

Councillor Phil Murphy, the authority's cabinet member responsible for finance said: "I accept that we could do better at paying our bills on time. But the raw data that you have been given doesn't tell the full story. As we pointed out in the original Freedom Of Information response on this issue, 'invoices that are disputed are contained within the information supplied.  Such invoices will impact on the Authority's ability to pay within trade terms'.

"We are working with services in the Council to improve the speed of processing our invoices, ensure data is being captured accurately and reported promptly so that issues can be resolved quickly. 

"But unfortunately, we remain the poorest funded council per head of population in Wales by a significant margin. And this year's provisional settlement from the Welsh Government will see us taking a further 1.8 per cent cut in funding – the largest in Wales .

"Given this and the decision that we have made to protect education spending, social services spending and economic development spending, it's regrettable, but not surprising, that some of our back office functions don't have the kind of staffing levels that we need to be able to pay our bills more quickly.

"But we are working on a range of improvements to the way we deal with this vital responsibility and I'm confident that we will soon see a significant improvement."

Councillor Murphy went on to clarify that the council is committed to helping businesses in Monmouthshire and that any suggestion that they are 'letting business down' was simply preposterous.

He added: "Helping business, as well as supporting the vulnerable and maintaining a high standard of education is one of our three spending priorities. We have launched a range of initiatives that support small and large enterprises.

"These include our Back to Business Week, our Economic Development Service's strategic partnership with Venture Wales, our work to improve the county's broadband infrastructure, our green deal and the practical day to day support and advice we give businesses of all sizes each and every day. I believe that we are the leading council in Wales in supporting and encouraging business and enterprise and we have many more initiatives in the pipeline."

Among those organisations who had not been paid within the 90 day time period include the Abergavenny and Beaupreau Twinning Association, Abergavenny Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, Abergavenny Autos, Abergavenny Bookshop, Abergavenny Borough Band, Abergavenny Carers Group, Abergavenny Chamber of Trade, Abergavenny Citizens Advice Bureau, Abergavenny Family Church, Abergavenny Market Auctioneers Ltd, Abergavenny Scout Group, Abergavenny Thursdays Trust Ltd and Abergavenny Youth Centre.