Hamilton Parish Council chairman Donaldo Laurenceo will not be accepting reappointment for another term following the ?offensive? designation that the Council has been late with its financial reports.

However on Tuesday Auditor General Larry Dennis stood by the chairman?s complaints, noting that the fault lay with the accounting firm charged with handling the financial reports of the parish councils and not with the Hamilton Parish Council.

In the Auditor General?s 2004 Annual Report, all parish councils were listed as being late with their financial reporting for 2004, with several councils also late for earlier years.

However in a letter to , Mr. Laurenceo wrote: ?In the case of the Hamilton Parish Council I am able to say that the council?s financial report is presented each year on or before the third Monday of April of the year of the report.?

Government now requires parish councils to present their reports to KPMG, who then report to the Auditor General.

?Prior to these arrangements being made we had direct and timely reporting to the Auditor General and were never included with ?entities late with financial reporting?,? Mr. Laurenceo wrote.

?Such designation is offensive to the members of the council, and is especially so when we present our financial report in a timely manner ... I am personally offended at this state of affairs and have informed members of the Council that I will not accept reappointment to the Council for another term.?

However when asked Mr. Dennis agreed with Mr. Laurenceo.

?The transfer of accounting responsibilities to a new accounting firm did affect the availability of the Hamilton Parish Council?s accounts through no fault of their own.

?The accounting firm was addressing the overall failure of the parishes to submit appropriate original accounting records and failed to recognise/appreciate that the information necessary to do the accounting for Hamilton Parish was in fact all there ... By the time we realised the situation it was too late.?

Noting the impact of negative statements over positive ones, Mr. Dennis said he had tried to isolate Hamilton Parish from the negative connotations in his report, stating that they were the ?notable exception? among parish councils. It would be unfortunate if the Chairman only focused on the negative and ignored that positive statement, he said, depriving the council of his ?obviously effective leadership?. Mr.Laurenceo could not be reached for comment yesterday.