A REPORT by City of York Council auditors warning about a lack of openness and transparency in the way the authority conducts its business was itself kept under wraps for six months.

It is tempting to describe this as a ‘delicious irony’. But it is more serious than that.

We’re all tempted to cover things up from time to time. But openness and transparency in the way both local and national governments do business is the very lifeblood of democracy. How can voters be expected to hold a local authority or national government to account if we don’t know how they make decisions?

The real irony is that the report by internal auditors Veritau into the process of democratic governance at the council was only moderately critical.

Veritau gave the authority an overall rating of ‘moderate assurance’ – the third of five possible categories. It then raised specific concerns about the way some key decisions were made. There was “misunderstanding regarding who could and couldn’t make key decisions and under what circumstances, if any, they could be made by individual cabinet members or officers”, the auditors said.

That report was written in December, yet it was only presented to councillors last week, and then only in summary form. The Press, with the help of York-based governance expert Gwen Swinburn, has now obtained a copy of the full report.

The council says it has taken steps to address the concerns outlined.

But that is not the point. The fact the authority did not immediately make this report public seems an example of the very lack of openness the report was criticising in the first place.