Auditor General Larry Dennis has called for Pembroke Parish council to be scrapped and others warned about suffering the same fate after losing patience with their lack of fiscal accountability.

Five years ago he questioned whether parish councils served any useful purpose but he said shuffling their oversight between Government departments and bringing in outside help had failed to improve financial reporting.

None of the parishes have issued audited financial statements for the year ending March 2007 while only Paget and Smith's issued audited statements for 2006.

Six years ago Government engaged a bookkeeping company to provide administrative and accounting help for the five largest parish councils but nothing improved, said Mr. Dennis.

Then in 2004 a firm of chartered accountants was hired to provide accounting services to all parishes, except Pembroke which felt it could cope on its own, to bring financial reporting up to date. But again there was no improvement.

Mr. Dennis wrote: "The underlying problems are undoubtedly with the councils themselves and with their dysfunctional operating and management systems."

He was unable to express an auditor's opinion in many cases because documentation was so bad.

"Whether this was caused by lack of commitment or incompetence and whether it masks mismanagement or even fraud, is impossible to tell."

Without prompt audits the chance of uncovering fraud was virtually eliminated said Mr. Dennis.

He noted Finance Minister Paula Cox had called in February 2007 for organisations that did not issue financial reports in a timely manner to have their funding withheld until their records are current.

In response to Mr. Dennis' renewed criticisms, the Finance Ministry said: "The Ministry is aware of financial reporting issues pertaining to Parish Councils and has put in place a Parish Councils Coordinator (Consultant) whose primary responsibility is to work directly with Parish Councils to improve their financial reporting practices.

"We expect all Parish Councils to be up-to-date with their financial reports by the end of the 2009 fiscal year."

In the case of Pembroke Parish Council Mr. Dennis said it had spent $7 million of public money over five years with no accountability and it showed no inclination or ability to address the "horrendous inadequacies in its accounting records."

He concluded by saying: "The Ministry of Culture and Rehabilitation should make immediate arrangements to withhold annual grant funding from Pembroke Parish Council and transfer its responsibilities to the Ministry."

Other parish councils should be given a deadline to sort themselves out or suffer the same fate, argued Mr. Dennis who expressed concern that Devonshire had no accountability for $120,000-a-year of public money after five year's of denials of audit opinions. Devonshire have responded by hiring an accountant.

Mr. Dennis has been unable to give an audit opinion on Sandys Parish Council for five years running because lack of proper records and said there was no accountability for $25,000 of public money a year while Warwick had no effective oversight for up to $700,000 spent each year over nine years.

The differences in grants relate to whether a parish runs a rest home or not.

Mr. Dennis expressed concern about Smith's, Southampton and St. George's parish councils. He added that St. George's had new responsibilities since the St. George's Rest Home opened in January 2007 meaning accountability was even more important.

He said the parish councils regularly broke the Parish Councils Act 1971 by not having enough meetings, not having a quorums and not minuting meetings.

He wrote: "In my view most parish councils have become irrelevant and an obstruction to accountability and its companion, good governance."