6.—(1) A local authority must keep adequate accounting records.
(2) Adequate accounting records means records that are sufficient—
(a)to show and explain the local authority’s transactions;
(b)to disclose with reasonable accuracy, at any time, a summary of the financial position of the authority; and
(c)to enable members of the local authority to ensure that any accounts that require to be prepared comply with the requirements of these Regulations.
(3) The accounting records must in particular contain—
(a)entries from day to day of all sums of money received and expended by the local authority and the matters in respect of which the receipt and expenditure takes place; and
(b)a record of the assets and liabilities of the authority.
(4) If the local authority deals in goods, the accounting records must contain—
(a)statements of stock held by the authority at the end of each financial year;
(b)all statements of stocktakings from which any statement of stock as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) has been or is to be prepared; and
(c)except in the case of goods sold by way of ordinary retail trade, statements of all goods sold and purchased, showing the goods and the buyers and sellers in sufficient detail to enable all these to be identified.
(5) Where a local authority has a local authority subsidiary body that is not subject to the requirements of this regulation, the local authority must ensure that the body takes such reasonable steps as are necessary to secure that the body’s accounting records enable the authority to fulfil its duties under the 1973 Act and these Regulations.
(6) The proper officer is responsible, on behalf of the local authority, and subject to any instructions given to that officer by that authority, for determining the form of, and maintaining, the authority’s—
(a)accounting control systems; and
(b)accounting records and supporting accounting records.
(7) The proper officer must ensure that the accounting control systems are observed and that the accounting records of the local authority are kept up to date.