FIFE Council has admitted shortfalls in the processes that saw funding being allocated to a charity in Lochgelly.

Local resident Paul McGowan's complaint to the local authority, over concerns on how more than £150,000 was awarded to Lo'gelly Lunches, was upheld.

It helps to feed around 150 people every week at Lochgelly Town Hall and while he said the organisation "performs its function very well and its volunteers should be commended", it had lacked council support until recently.

"This lack of support has meant that a substantial amount of Fife Council funding has been given to the organisation without any form of supervision or mentoring spanning a period of over three years," he stated.

"Fife Council has failed compliance of its own rules since 2020 in regard to this organisation (until recently), with particular regard to the funding application, evaluation monitoring and governance of the same."

Speaking to the Times, Mr McGowan said that a number of councillors had raised concerns over the sustainability of the organisation at an area committee meeting in March.

"I started asking a number of questions of Fife Council over its governance," he said. "Where are the application forms? They gave me some applications forms but they did not give them all.

"They refused to give me a copy of Lo'gelly Lunches financial report on the grounds it was confidential. I said 'It is not confidential information because they have applied to a public service for money'.

"I then went to the information commissioner and a week before they were supposed to make judgement, Fife Council threw in the towel and gave me a copy.

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"In three and a half years, and over £150,000, only one funding report was ever given to Fife Council. That means Fife Council has given this organisation tens and thousands of pounds over three or four year without any proper governance around it.

"I am now happy that the Cowdenbeath area committee under the stewardship of Anne Marie Vance will take this forward and do the right thing.

"Who in Fife Council owned that responsibility over the last three years? It is not to do with Lo'gelly Lunches.

"From the start, I have said I don't have a problem with Lo'gelly Lunches being a food pantry or voluntary organisation doing really good work."

In her response to Mr McGowan, Fife Council community manager Anne-Marie Vance acknowledged issues had been identified and now addressed.

"There are processes for awarding funding to ensure good governance and systems are in place to safeguard public spending," she said.

"Regrettably, these formal processes were not fully recorded for some of our grant funding which has resulted in gaps in the information we hold and we acknowledge that this is not acceptable.

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"Over the last year, the team have been working to ensure that a fair and consistent process is followed, which is fully compliant with our governance arrangements.

"In addition, we’ve been working to further strengthen these processes to mitigate any risk and provide confidence around public spending across the area.

"For 2024/25 we have changed the way we distribute funding for community food, ensuring that funds match the population and levels of deprivation across the area, with a variety of local projects receiving support to provide their services.

"For all groups receiving over £10,000, they also have a service level agreement in place, to ensure that the service they provide meets with our expectations, with funding delivered in three instalments over the course of the financial year."