THE national spending watchdog has been urged to step in to investigate £1 million of potentially unlawful payments paid to senior council officers in Castle Point.

Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois has presented a detailed dossier of documents to the National Audit Office and called for a full investigation into Castle Point Council.

It comes after it was revealed that more than £1 million in “potential unlawful payments” were given to senior officers over a ten-year period.

External auditor EY has been investigating the council’s finances since 2022 and so far been unable sign off the audit for 2021/22 due to “sensitive and complex” issues.

Mr Francois, who is a member of the public accounts committee, passed the dossier to the auditor general on the request of Castle Point Tory Tarpots candidate Andrew Sheldon (pictured).

He said: “These allegations are potentially extremely serious, which is why I handed the detailed dossier about them, from Andrew Sheldon, to the auditor general and comptroller myself and asked him to look into the matter.”

At a Castle Point Council audit meeting, a councillor’s calls for all details of the redacted audit report to be published as part of a “public interest report” were not supported.

Mr Francois added that auditor EY could still decide to publish the audit investigation report themselves, so “the council taxpayers of Castle Point might finally get to know the truth, even if it is possibly highly embarrassing for the council”.

Details surrounding the £1 million of payments were made public after the Echo revealed that £142,733 was paid to the estate of long-standing council chief executive David Marchant’s estate following his death into 2021.

Mr Sheldon said: “The fact that potentially unlawful payments for over £1 million were made by senior officers and deliberately concealed from councillors and the public is a scandal that I have been trying to bring to light for years.

“I now have absolutely zero faith that the political leadership of Castle Point Council will handle the matter properly, which is why I made the request to Mr Francois as a member of the public accounts committee for the National Audit Office to become involved.

“The council taxpayers of Castle Point deserve to know what has gone on with their money.”