On Mon, 9 Jan 2023 at 13:23, Wales Audit Office <info@audit.wales> wrote:

Dear Mr Richards,

Thank you for your correspondence dated 20th December 2022 which was also addressed to a number of other parties. I note from your correspondence that you sent your correspondence to the Wales Audit Office as you understood us to be the “relevant public organisation with the power to investigate the criminal actions of NPTCBC public officials”.

It may be helpful if I briefly set out some information about our role and how we consider correspondence we receive. The Auditor General for Wales (Auditor General) is the statutory auditor of most public bodies in Wales including Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (the Council) The Auditor General’s duties and powers are set out in legislation. The Auditor General’s duties primarily relate to the use of public money and include auditing the Council’s accounts. The Auditor General is supported in discharging his statutory functions by staff employed by the Wales Audit Office. The Auditor General and his auditors welcome correspondence because it can provide useful information relevant to the exercise of the Auditor General’s statutory functions. However, there is no general obligation to examine issues raised in correspondence and we cannot lawfully examine matters that fall outside the Auditor General’s statutory functions. Where issues raised in correspondence are not substantially relevant to the Auditor General’s or Wales Audit Office’s functions, we may suggest other bodies that may be appropriate to contact. In such cases we will not take any further action to examine the issues. We have published a leaflet for correspondents writing to the Auditor General or Audit Wales which provides more information on how we consider correspondence. You can access the leaflet on our website here.

Having read your correspondence, I note that you allege potential criminality, breaches of health and safety regulations and malpractice by Council officials. I acknowledge the serious nature of your allegations. However, these are not matters the Auditor General or his auditors are able to examine within the Auditor General’s statutory remit. The Auditor General is not able to investigate allegations of fraud or other criminality or impropriety. We will therefore only examine such allegations to the extent that examining the alleged criminality or impropriety would facilitate or be conducive to our audit work at the Council (which is not the case in this instance). I therefore regret that we are unable to examine the matters you have raised. This is not a judgement on the merits of those matters.

I note that you have already referred your concerns to South Wales Police who can investigate allegations of criminality, and you have also raised concerns regarding potential waste contamination with Natural Resources Wales. You may also wish to consider raising your concerns regarding health and safety with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE can be contacted here.

Thank you for taking the time to correspond with us.

Yours sincerely

Matthew Edwards

Cyfarwyddwr Archwillio || Audit Director

Ffôn || Phone: 029 2032 0500

E-bost || Email: post@archwilio.cymru / info@audit.wales

www.archwilio.cymru || www.audit.wales