Accountancy firm KPMG was asked to investigate concerns about inappropriate use of purchase orders and tendering and approval procedures at the Corporation of Hamilton.

A progress report from the auditors on May 30 this year reveals that the Corporation's finance committee asked them to look for evidence of undeclared personal interests of members, non-business related expenditure on corporate credit cards and unpaid for personal telephone calls.

But Mayor Sutherland Madeiros told The Royal Gazette he believed the concerns were totally unsubstantiated and would not come to anything — raising a question about why they were raised in the first place.

KPMG took over the City Hall audit this year from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

An e-mail from KPMG director Stephen Woodward shows that the firm temporarily withdrew from the audit due to "governance and internal control matters".

Mr. Woodward e-mailed former Corporation Secretary Kelly Miller on May 23 to say: "I would like to make it clear that the decision to withdraw the audit team was not only as a result of the lack of availability of the audit information requested."

He added that "concerns regarding the overall level of governance within the Corporation, possible override of internal controls and lack of accountability" had been discussed at meetings at City Hall with members.

"Our decision to withdraw the audit team was based on the governance and internal control matters raised during these meetings in addition to the delay in audit information," wrote Mr. Woodward.

The e-mail and interim report were given to this newspaper by whistleblower Graeme Outerbridge, who believes voters in the capital should know how their tax dollars are being managed and spent.

The auditors recommenced work on May 12 and their findings will be made public next week, according to Corporation Treasurer Geoff Bell.

He said the audit had taken longer than normal "because of the depth (of work) they have done".

He said the financial statements were due to be adopted by members yesterday before going to the Ministry of Finance and then being published in The Royal Gazette.

KPMG's progress report of May 30 contained a raft of recommendations on how the municipality could improve its financial governance.

Mayor Sutherland Madeiros told this newspaper in June that the auditors began their inquiries after concerns were raised by members of the finance committee.

He said he thought they were unsubstantiated and that nothing untoward would be found, comments he reiterated this week.

One of the concerns was whether purchase orders were being properly authorised. KPMG suggested developing a "declaration of interests" policy to prevent conflicts regarding contracts.

The auditors were also asked to scrutinise credit card statements and review procedures for the use of Corporation cell phones by staff and elected members, the latter request coming after Alderman David Dunkley took a year to pay back thousands of dollars for personal international calls on his mobile.

KPMG has said it does not comment on client engagements.