A report into contract practices by accountants into the practices of civil servants for Edinburgh City Council have revealed multiple failings, resulting in the council paying for £27 million of construction work.

Failures included the avoidance of correct tendering processes, having work carried out without proper evidence of quality control or detail planning into cost reduction and overall supplier costs.

Accountants also discovered that contractors had access to payment systems and that internal reports were destroyed prior to the accountant’s investigation.

The failure in procurement and contract management has been disputed by the council, which called the report ‘historic ‘and out of ‘context’.