COUNCIL leader Louise Goldsmith has denied West Sussex is a “clueless” local authority.

She was speaking after The Argus reported damning revelations about the way multimillion-pound private contracts were managed at the county council.

An internal auditor’s report found “systematic failures” with the council’s £60 million highways contract with Balfour Beatty and “weaknesses” with a £154 million contract with Capita.

Yesterday we reported how the council’s own finance chief Michael Brown could not explain to the committee how much the council may have overspent.

But councillor Louise Goldsmith insisted the council was good at managing residents’ money.

She said: “We have a proven track record in delivering against our ambitious agenda and managing our finances. One of my jobs in doing that is to make sure that the stones are turned to ensure we are providing good quality services and value for money; that’s exactly what this annual audit report has done.”

She added: “We are always looking to do much better. That’s what we’re about - that’s why we have regular audits.

“But the county council is certainly not clueless. How could it be – without increasing council tax we’ve saved £100 million over the last four years and reinvested millions of underspend back into the frontline services that make a real difference to our communities - one example is our £30 million better roads programme.

“It is quite wrong to say that we have ‘lost millions’. Yes, this audit report has highlighted discrepancies with how some of our contracts are managed and monitored and we have already put in place changes to correct those.”

She added the highways contract had led to fewer potholes and fewer complaints and saved taxpayers £2.5 million.