STAFF at Colchester Council were getting their expenses claim forms signed off by officers who did not have the power to do so.

The problem was first identified in December 2007, and has only this month been resolved.

The council’s finance and audit scrutiny panel heard at a meeting on Tuesday that the payroll department has only just received the up-to-date lists of those able to sign the forms.

An investigation by Deloittes, the company employed to carry out the audit, discovered that on February 18 this year staff were still having forms signed by those not authorised to do so.

A sample of five expenses claims and five mileage claims showed that three were signed by unauthorised officers.