AN investigation is being carried out into bookkeeping mistakes at Dartmouth Town Council.

Errors have been discovered in the final month's figures for the year, which have resulted in adjustments having to me made, councillors have been told.

And Cllr Roger Chilcott, chairman of the town council's finance committee, said the 'discrepancies' could affect next year's budget.

Almost 20 changes have had to be made to figures for March 2015, it was revealed at Monday's meeting of the council.

But when it was asked who was responsible, it was decided to exclude the public and press from further debate and continue discussions behind closed doors.

The situation was outlined by town clerk Tracy Rowe, who said an internal auditor would examine the books over a two-day period at the end of the month, which is the usual annual procedure.

She said: 'Adjustments have been made for some errors that were found when working towards the bank reconciliation for March 31.'

There were also some entries where there had been some computer duplications, she said.

'An additional temporary member of staff is working with us to reconcile the accounts but is finding it quite difficult due to the lack of accounting information we've kept on monies paid into the bank,' she said.

And Mrs Rowe said there was an urgent need for the position of bookkeeper to be filled as soon as possible, as the council was already two weeks into the new financial year.

For more on this story, see this week's Dartmouth Chronicle