Allerdale council is behind schedule in its audit plan due to sickness absence.

The authority’s audit committee was told yesterday that the team was behind in its work for the first quarter of the financial year due to a recorded 25 days of sickness.

The department was aiming to assign 77.34 per cent of its time to certain activities, including fraud activities, statutory assurance reviews, investigations and corporate support.

However it only managed to carry out 55 per cent in the period in question.

In a report to the committee, Emma Thompson, the council’s assurance, risk and audit manager said this was “significantly below the planned target.”