Segregation of duties not maintained for payment authorisation above £10k threshold

Testing identified that the same officer is able to both create and approve payments exceeding the £10,000 threshold in the accounts payable system. This control weakness creates a material risk of unauthorised or fraudulent payments being processed without independent verification. Evidence gathered during fieldwork confirmed 14 instances over the review period where a single user performed both actions.

Section 4.2 of the Council's Financial Regulations and CIPFA's Code of Practice on Treasury Management require that no single officer may both initiate and authorise a payment transaction above the prescribed threshold.

Finance to reconfigure system roles so that payment creation and authorisation functions are assigned to distinct user profiles. An interim manual authorisation log to be maintained pending system changes.