CLAIMS have been made about a "waste" of taxpayers' money in Wirral with questions raised about payments made without paperwork.

During a tense Wirral Council meeting, Conservative leader Tom Anderson wanted to know how much money had been spent without purchase orders.

Purchase orders are documents created ahead of a payment being made that details what the money was spent on and can help organisations monitor spending.

Cllr Anderson and other Conservative councillors said the issue was important given a report highlighted the council is predicted to face several difficult years with its budget until 2027.

The council is expected to bring in a new system in April 2023 to better manage its finances and payments made. It was due to be brought in 2022 but this was pushed back because it wasn't ready.

At a council meeting, Cllr Anderson said the council had previously spent £30m over six months without a purchase order in 2019 and wanted confirmation how much money was spent without one this year.

Cllr Anderson also wanted to see the council refuse to make a single payment from June 2023 without a purchase order but officers warned this could result in some areas of the council not working properly and asked for a delay.

Chief Executive Paul Satoor said it could cause "significant difficulties" particularly in childrens' and social services where payments sometimes have to be made quickly. He said controls were in place to monitor payments.

This proposal was later thrown out by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens who voted against it after the warnings of a "major risk" to the council.

However, all councillors voted to support regular updates on the amount of money spent going forward to tackle the issue.

Cllr Anderson said: "Nothing has been achieved. It's a risk to the council tax payer. It can't be that difficult to say if you do not have a purchase order number from June 1, we will not pay you."

He added: "I think it's a significant financial risk to this council and the council tax payer if we're putting up council tax by 5%, then the least they can expect is that it's spent efficiently and wisely. This is not new. It relates back to 2019."

Legal officers for the council said the proposal wasn't illegal but "it would have unknown consequences and bind areas of the organisation in ways we don't understand or would be able to substantiate at this meeting."

Cllr Jenny Johnson said: "This is once again about council waste and is indicative of the council being scared. What on earth are you scared of?"

She added: "I think we need to be crawling all over this. These are old arguments and this is a basic way of running an organisation and these are the kinds of things that worry me about Labour being in control."

Council leader Janette Williamson in response said: "Labour are taking expert advice either side for this one and I think we should do that. That's why we have officers here, to give us expert advice and guidance."

Phil Gilchrist later asked for a report to be brought back to the Policy and Resources committee on the money spent but Cllr Anderson argued: "This is genuinely weak. Four years this has been going on and what you are doing is kicking the can down the road."

An amendment to regularly report on the payments as well as a plan of action to the committee was passed unanimously.