Highland Council was under fire after last night after it emerged major building projects worth £14million are running behind schedule.
Failure to complete a range of key schemes – including the Inverness flood works, new schools and a graveyard extension – has left the local authority with a massive underspend on its programme.
It now faces playing catch-up – and there are fears there will be a knock-on impact on the timing of future projects.
And last night one opposition councillor called for a “fresh look” at the whole issue of budgeting.
Aird and Loch Ness member Margaret Davidson said: “The capital budget seems to drift every year.
“There is something fundamentally wrong with either project management or planning and this need to be looked at again.
“With schools, we seem to be so slow in building. If it’s not one suffering a delay, then it’s another.”
While figures will not be finalised until next month, a report by the council’s financial director Derek Yule prepared for this week’s resource committee shows that the authority’s underspend amounts to about 12% of its £116.million capital budget for 2014-15.
A separate paper covering provisional revenue figures shows an underspend of nearly £4.2million on day-to-day costs.
The figures were published just days after budget leader Councillor Maxine Smith voiced fears that the council would face even greater spending cuts in the future because of the UK Government’s austerity programme.
Last night, she claimed that part of the £14million underspend was due to an extra £10million being added to the capital budget to “encourage us to spend more”.
Ms Smith, who is expected to become the council’s next leader, said: “I would expect the figure to be lower when the final figures are produced in June. I think it will be nearer £10million.”
She added: “I think it was a good policy to put extra money in to encourage us to spend more.
“It was designed to mitigate the cuts in revenue and put more money into the economy.”
She cited one example of “unbelievable delays” on building new schools in Wick, where there have been problems getting contractors for the project.
Ms Smith said: “We have to remember the nature of the Highlands and with the best will in the world we cannot always get people to deliver on time.
“Each contract is unique.”
Mr Yule’s report reveals that the planning and development service has the largest underspend, with work worth £6.8million delayed.
The projects include the ongoing River Ness Flood Alleviation Scheme.
Poor weather during the winter has also caused delays to a number of roads schemes in the community services department, with less than expected spent on replacing vehicles and other equipment.
In total, the department has underspent by £3.4million.
This also includes delays in buying seven acres of land for an extension of the cemetery at Nairn’s Granny Barbours Road.
The preliminary figures also show that nothing has been spent from the £2million discretionary budget, despite the council committing to spend half of the money on projects ranging from war memorials, car parking at Foyers and the redevelopment of Eden Court Theatre’s orchestra pit.
As well as delays to the Wick schools projects, officials say work has been slow at Lundavra Primary School in Fort William.
And a drive to integrate the council’s communications is eight months behind schedule because of technical difficulties.
Meanwhile, a separate report to the resources committee considers recent criticism by Audit Scotland about the monitoring of the cost of major projects.
The financial watchdog said that councillors were starved of vital information needed to make key decisions on multimillion-pound schemes.
The scathing report said that members could not scrutinise major investment plans because of a lack of information.
The report, to be discussed on Wednesday, says that progress on significant capital projects above £5million will now be reported on a regular basis.
And it is proposed to provide more training for members on financial matters.