I MUST take issue with your wholly misleading report headed "Council cash report is not so bad" (LET, December 14).

The 'report' referred to is, in fact, an addition to an item on the audit sub-committee dealing with internal auditing matters for 1999/2000.

Far from criticising the authority, the paper is a routine - and thoroughly positive - report on the way Blackburn with Darwen Council runs its affairs. It also confirms the opinion of our external auditors that the authority is well run and soundly managed. Successive Management Letters over the past several years have supported this view.

In addition, the council's qualification for Managed Audit status provides ample evidence that we have in place extremely robust controls over finance.

However, no organisation can be so complacent that there is no room for improvement - a point realised by the council. But to highlight so-called criticisms over the way we run our business and place these claims at the top of your report is not only misleading but presents a completely false picture.

Any worthwhile review of a service should contain recommendations for further improvements and the internal audit report is no exception - after all, no one is perfect. It is a pity that these were the only points you saw fit to print.

ALAN COTTON, Director of finance, Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Footnote: We asked the Council for a copy of the full report, which was not made available. Our story did include the comments of the council's spokesman and brief extracts of the auditor's report, which the Council had chosen to make public in committee minutes. It seems unfair to criticise us for not giving a full picture of something when we were not allowed to scrutinise it in its entirety - Editor.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.