A finance service has been fined £55k by a local authority for failing to complete the authority's accounting on time.

The customer and support group finance service, which is managed by Capita, failed to complete Barnet Council's accounts by the end of July 2017, which is the contractual deadline.

The audit committee were told last week in a report that this was due to a major restructure in their team and "the lack of a permanent, experienced team meant there was a lack of resources in the core accounts closure team".

Barnet Council has fined the company £55,000, which has been offset by the external auditor, BDO, who have had to charge more due to extra work caused by Capita, but according to Labour councillors there is no guarantee the extra cost will be accepted by Capita rather than falling on the council.

Labour's audit spokesperson Cllr Geof Cooke said: "This latest Capita cock-up is yet another example of what can go wrong when key services are outsourced.

"The Barnet Tories tried to blame the external auditors for the delay and the errors, but this latest report makes it clear that the responsibility lies squarely with Capita.

"Instead of assigning blame to people that were drafted in to help sort the problem out, the Tories should accept that their mass outsourcing of back-office services to Capita has backfired and is unravelling."

But Conservative councillor Dan Thomas, who is the chairman of the assets, regeneration and growth committee and deputy leader of the council, said Labour councillors were just criticising "without bringing anything constructive to the table."

He said: "Cllr Cook likes to paint outsourcing services as the root of all evil, but Labour have spent years sniping about Barnet's in-house council officers, too.

"And I would have thought Cllr Cook would be pleased Capita are paying us £55,000 on top of the £1 million a month the contract already saves Barnet taxpayers."

Leader of Barnet Council, Cllr Richard Cornelius, added: "In any contractual relationship, there will be issues that need to be resolved. What’s important is how you deal with these when they arise.

"Capita have delivered savings and improved satisfaction for the taxpayer, but in this case, their service has fallen short of the expected. As a result, the council has received £55,000 by way of compensation."