Service charge finding

35% of disclosed spend went via "Auto approve validation"

196 invoices totalling £152,602 (35% of disclosed spend on our buildings) passed through with an "Auto approve validation" tag instead of a human approval action.

All findings approvals

FY2025

The facts

196 of the 915 disclosed invoices show "Auto approve validation" in the audit trail — no recorded human approval, no named approver. Total value £152,602, ~35% of the disclosed FY2025 spend.

Committee's interpretation

The committee should ask R&R what the auto-approval rules are: caps, supplier whitelist, threshold values, and who owns the decision to add a supplier or category to the auto-approve pool.

Published 1 July 2026