We are now in the first week of 2022 and the cobwebs of the holiday season should be just about cleared. Hopefully, many of us are still abiding by those New Year resolutions to lose weight, get in shape and be more efficient.

We can only hope that the people who run Machynlleth Town Council are also committed to their resolution to publish their missing accounts, and that they stick by their promise to issue a full detailing of incomes and expenditure early in the New Year.

If they don’t, then many more questions will need to be asked others than those that have lingered over the public body since at least last April.

While we are not suggesting that something untoward may be afoot, it is certainly highly irregular that a local authority be so behind in the release of its annual public accounts.

This is not a private company where there may be other holding accounts or subsidiaries to factor in before statements are forwarded to Companies House. No, this is a properly constituted town council where the public are shareholders, and every penny spent by officials needs to be accounted for as a matter of civic duty, legal necessity, and moral obligation.

Imagine if you will, the bureaucratic legal nightmare that would befall a taxpayer were they so tardy in furnishing their tax payments to a council. Since April, town councillors Gareth Jones and Monica Atkins in particular have been pushing for a release of accounts due since December 2019.

The most recent update on the state of accounting was provided before Christmas by Proper Officer and Responsible Finance Officer Cllr Jeremy Paige, who said the missing finance reports would be audited in February before being placed in the public domain. He assured all that “there is no issue of foul play here but some procedures and good practice have been found to have been overlooked.”

Quite frankly, Cllr Paige, the public and others will be the judges of whether there has been foul play and the effectiveness of procedures.

The excuses or assurances are not good enough. Nor are the delays.

When the council does get around to releasing its accounts, what action will be taken against those responsible for these unacceptable delays? That’s not an unreasonable question either. Or will that “good practice” be “overlooked” too?