AUDITORS are weeks away from completing a potentially explosive report on the inner workings of transport authority Merseytravel – which is currently without a chief executive.
Acting chief executive Jim Barclay has been signed off sick with stress.
His absence comes as auditors are completing a investigation into possible broken contract laws at the authority.
The authority may not have tendered properly for consultants that cost millions of pounds – in breach of European law.
District Auditor Julian Farmer has said Merseytravel could struggle to prove it spent the money properly.
Mr Barclay was made acting chief executive after the departure of Neil Scales earlier this year.
The dossier which revealed the possible broken contract laws was written by Labour councillors.
It revealed deep concerns about the renting of the new £2.8m-a-year HQ at Mann Island. And it also revealed how £10,000 (plus VAT) monthly retainer was being paid to London-based lobbyists and public affairs company Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB).
