Councillors must be given more help to allow them to effectively scrutinise investment on major projects such as schools and roads, according to a new report.
The Accounts Commission found that many elected representatives were not receiving adequate information on capital investment in their local authority.
It has called for councillors to be provided with “regular, appropriate and accurate information” as well as more training.
Local authorities spent £7 billion on capital investment between April 2012 and March 2015, amounting to more than half of Scottish public-sector capital expenditure.
A total of 149 projects costing £3.2 billion were completed over the same period.
The commission made a series of recommendations in 2013 urging councils to improve the management of their capital investment.
Its latest report concluded some progress had been made but identified weaknesses in planning and said local authorities needed to “increase the pace of improvement”.
Business cases should be revisited and reviewed routinely over the course of a project, and every council should have a long-term capital investment strategy, it said.
Accounts Commission chair Douglas Sinclair said: “Councils spend a great deal of money on capital projects such as schools and roads which are vital for local services.
“Our 2013 report recommended actions to help councils improve performance. They have made some progress since then but they need to do further work to fully comply with good practice.
“In particular, they should provide councillors with better information through clear, good-quality reports to enable them to effectively challenge and scrutinise capital investment decisions, plans and progress. ”
Local government body Cosla described the report as “inaccurate and misleading”, and called on the Accounts Commission to “get real” about the financial challenges councils face.
Finance spokesman councillor Kevin Keenan said: “This is not about individual capital projects like a school being built.
“What they are talking about is capital investment planning for the longer-term and this is something that councils were making great progress on until we had the rug pulled from under our feet from the centre.
“How can the Accounts Commission realistically expect us to plan major capital investment programmes costing millions of pounds when we are faced, like this year, with a short-term one-year budget from the Scottish Government?”
Local government body Cosla described the report as “inaccurate and misleading”, and called on the Accounts Commission to “get real” about the financial challenges councils face.
Finance spokesman councillor Kevin Keenan said: “This is not about individual capital projects like a school being built.
“What they are talking about is capital investment planning for the longer-term and this is something that councils were making great progress on until we had the rug pulled from under our feet from the centre.
“How can the Accounts Commission realistically expect us to plan major capital investment programmes costing millions of pounds when we are faced, like this year, with a short-term one-year budget from the Scottish Government?”