MURKY financial dealings involving the running of the Forest Road Unemployed Community and Resource Centre in Cinderford have been alleged in an uncompromising audit report to the district council.
The centre, largely funded by a grant of £75,000 by the council, has been taken to task in the report which alleges a "lack of financial control, mismanagement and wrong-doings."
Members of the council's quality and performance review committee have unanimously voted to immediately suspend funding to the centre. They also insisted that the report should be made public and be considered in public at this week's meeting of the policy and resources committee.
Council officials have been instructed to find alternative means of achieving the outcomes, aims and objectives of the centre.
The row now seems certain to develop into a political hot potato. This week Mark Harper, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the Forest, called for the resignation of councillors Diana Martin, the centre's co-ordinator, and Bart Venner, the honorary treasurer.
In a statement he said there appeared to be a number of areas of financial irregularity which required full public explanation.
In his role as treasurer of the centre, Mr Venner has written to Mrs Meg Holborrow, the council's managing director, saying that the management committee had already accepted the need to re-structure all the work at the centre and to create the post of a general manager and a financial manager as soon as possible.
He wrote: "It was, therefore, with great regret that the current post of co-ordinator would be made redundant with immediate effect. Complete re-arrangement would be made in the next few weeks with the 'Drop-In' part of the Centre being closed after the posting of 'due notice' times. Advice would be carried out by appointment only to allow current cases to be completed."
The internal audit lists a string of financial irregularities involving loans and expenses and makes 18 recommendations requiring immediate action.