Council to review policy on buying fuel for vehicles from across the border as it's 'cheaper'

Derry's council is to review its policy of purchasing fuel across the border for its fleet of vehicles, it has emerged.

The move comes after a meeting Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Assurance, Audit and Risk Committee on Thursday afternoon, held in the Guildhall.

At the meeting, it emerged that an internal audit had been carried out by the council into its fleet of vehicles, which led to a number of weaknesses being identified.

Those resulted into council’s Internal Audit team making several recommendations, one of which related to making improvements in controls to monitor fuel usage.

Speaking at the meeting, Tony Jackson, an independent advisor with the council, asked for the committee’s view on council purchasing fuel across the border for council vehicles based in Strabane as it was ‘cheaper’.

Responding, Karen Phillips, Head of Environment said that the practise of the buying fuel from separate outlets for vehicles in Derry and Strabane was something the new council had ‘inherited’ from both of the old councils.

She added that the system was currently under review and subject to a cost benefit analysis, adding that the council was now considering a ‘combined’ approach to purchasing fuel for its vehicle fleet, but buying fuel across the border ‘was not something we are considering’.

Denise McDonnell, Risk and Assurance Officer with council, added that council had made ‘significant improvements’ with regards to its depot at Skeoge which houses its fleet.

“There’s been huge improvements in terms of where we would have been,” she said.

Commenting, the independent councillor Gary Donnelly said that he had concerns over the Skeoge depot in relation to a contract awarded by the council following what he described as a security issue at the site.