MICHELANGELO needed just three years to carve his sculpture of David from Italian marble, and it took only three years from the first uncrewed Apollo test flight for Nasa to put a man on the moon.

Both feats of human achievement were completed in less time than the five years (and counting) it has taken auditors to deal with an objection to the accounts of crisis-hit Thurrock Council.

Auditors at the firm BDO have admitted they are still unable to respond to an objection that was submitted about the council's 2020/21 accounts more than 1,800 days ago – longer than it took the Beatles to write, record and release eight consecutive number-one albums.

It was made in September 2021 by a councillor concerned about the nature of deals being done by the local authority, whose finances would soon implode amid claims of multimillion-pound fraud.

The scale of Thurrock Council's debt was exclusively first reported on Thurrock Nub News on 16 January 2020.

The council went bust in 2022 as a result, and soon after an in-depth report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism exposed the level of the scandal behind the losses. The council's finances are in such a mess it has been unable to publish audited accounts over five-year period.

That matters because it means local residents have been denied vital information – and reassurance – about the financial health of the council and how their money has been spent.

Read about 'The Sunshine Millionaire' and his lifestyle funded by £130m from Thurrock Council.

The Bureau recently asked BDO why it has taken so long to complete the work but it declined to comment citing "confidentiality". Previous delays had been attributed to a lack of staff and a government inspection in 2023. There has also been a huge audit backlog affecting hundreds of local authorities in England.

While any "interested" person can request to inspect a local authority's accounts during a set period each year, you must be on the electoral register in that area to formally object to them.

In doing so, you can ask the auditor to issue a public interest report and even to apply to the high court for a declaration that something in the accounts is unlawful.

That's what John Kent, then leader of the Labour group on Thurrock Council, did five years ago.

At the time, Thurrock's disastrous investment strategy had yet to fully unravel and the council was insisting it was all under control. However, armed with our reporting, Mr Kent argued that the deals were unlawful because they breached rules that prohibited local authorities from borrowing money just to reinvest it for profit.

He also pointed to a high court judgment from April of that year which suggested that a £5m payment to Rockfire Capital, made as part of one of the investments, may have been a "covert extraction of funds" for the benefit of the company's CEO, Liam Kavanagh.

Mr Kent said it raised concerns regarding "value for money" – a key consideration of the audit process – and the prospect that Mr Kavanagh had secretly received further payments as part of Thurrock's other investments.

The delay demonstrates the hideous complexity and lack of transparency that led to this disaster

John Kent, former council leader

Three years later, Thurrock sued Mr Kavanagh and his company for fraud. In his defence to that claim, Mr Kavanagh admitted that a large part of £130m of Thurrock's investment had been used for his "personal benefit", though he claims he was entitled to it.

In a report published ahead of an audit committee meeting on Monday evening this week (5 October), BDO revealed that the council intends to describe the 2020/21 accounts as "true and fair in respect of the overall financial position of the authority" while admitting there may be "material errors on a line-by-line basis".

BDO says this statement makes it impossible for it to issue a formal opinion on the accounts. It is still legally required, however, to produce a response to the objection.

Mr Kent has won an election, resigned as council leader and stepped down as a councillor in the years since filing the objection.

"Although I am no longer involved in local politics, I remain genuinely angry at the financial catastrophe that was allowed to happen and the consequences of which all residents are still suffering," he said.

"I first formally raised my deep concerns with the council's external auditor five years ago. I am deeply disappointed that my objections have still not been resolved. But I guess that just demonstrates the hideous complexity and lack of transparency that led to this disaster."

BDO says it needs to take further legal advice before it can finalise its response to his objection. It expects to issue that reply next month and to complete its work on the accounts in December.

Fittingly, the auditor didn't get the opportunity to present the update to the council on the night because too many members of the committee were off sick, meaning the meeting was closed after six minutes.

The council has published just 14 seconds of the meeting on a video clip, which can be viewed below.

It is not yet recorded who was there and who wasn't.

The meeting is due to be rescheduled to next month.