A new report has revealed a projected surplus of more than £10 million across Angus Council departments at the end of the 2015/16 financial year.
The latest estimate of the financial position across the council’s various departments shows there were several with significant underspends.
Staff costs are the main reason for the underspends, accounting for almost £7 million.
Some departments stated that they were deliberately keeping posts vacant to help meet future savings targets.
Most of the £10,383,000 underspend has been committed for use in the current financial year. However, around £2,661,000 is currently unallocated.
Scrutinising the figures at the council’s policy and resources meeting, Brechin councillor Bob Myles said: “It’s always better to have an underspend than an overspend but we need to keep a close eye on it.
“We have been forced into making quite a lot of cutbacks in recent times and it looks bad if we end up with a lot of money in our pocket.”
Another big saving was the lower than budgeted expenditure on school meals as a result of a lower than anticipated uptake among primary one to three pupils, which saved half a million.
The council received £1.4 million more than it expected in the form of income from the integrated care fund.
Councillor Alex King said: “Ever since Angus Council was created in 1996 we have operated on the basis of a fixed budget that the departments are not supposed to go above and very seldom do they.
“There are normally savings and underspends during the financial year and it’s not exceptional at this time.
“At the time of the budget setting, the projected underspend was £6.065 million of which £6.044 million was committed.
“We have made certain savings since then.
“I’m quite sure departments will be looking at how they might get (the unallocated £2.66 million) committed and come back with proposals.
“As always if there is an uncommitted balance going into next year’s balance we will be looking at how we can use that to minimise cuts and provide services as we have done in previous years.”
