A third of town and community councils in Wales failed to publish their audited accounts on time, a report has warned today.

A new report from the Auditor General for Wales found only 486 councils (66%) met the statutory deadline for publishing their accounts.

This means 218 councils either failed to submit on time or mis-stated information in their annual return.

Auditor general, Adrian Crompton, said: ‘While I am delighted to see the positive response from some councils to our recommendations from last year, I am disappointed that some councils still receive qualified opinions for multiple reasons.

’I recommend that all councils consider the issues raised in this report and reflect on whether any of the issues may apply to them.’

Last year, significant failures in the management of public funds by councils led to the public interest reports being issued on 12 councils.