A REPORT into council corruption allegations linked to more than £9million in spending has been returned to councillors – but with 80 pages still blank.

West Dunbartonshire councillors voted unanimously last month for a more transparent internal audit report into suggestions of “fingers in the till”.

Community Party councillor Jim Bollan made the motion and detailed whistleblower claims at the meeting.

He slammed the fact 87 of 135 pages in the report were completely redacted with dozens more partially hidden.

But, weeks later when a less redacted version was released to councillors - it revealed hardly anything more.

And now, Provost William Hendrie has blocked Cllr Bollan from making another motion demanding proper transparency.

The “Allegations of Hospitality and Tendering and Contracting Arrangements” report uses multiple colours to hide almost everything – even bullets of bullet points.

It does reveal spending to two contractors totalling more than £9m between 2006 and 2017.

Read more: West Dunbartonshire Council auditors probing claims of alleged 'fingers in the till'

Cllr Bollan told the Reporter: “The chair of the council, Provost William Hendrie, has refused to allow the motion I submitted on fraud and corruption to be placed on the council agenda for discussion on March 27.

“He took this decision on the basis of standing order 9(f). This standing order has to demonstrate ‘clear illegality’ which in my opinion Cllr Hendrie has not done. No explanation from the chair of the council has been provided.

“Only names, addresses and contact details should be redacted yet the 135-page document still has 80 pages left completely blank, with another 24 unreadable.

“How can the 22 councillors discuss a 135-page report and understand its contents with 104 pages unreadable?”

He continued: “This is a scandalous and outrageous attack on local democracy and accountability to our constituents by the chair of the council.

“The public has a right to know if their council tax money is being used for private gain by senior council officers.

“Every councillor who wants to get to the truth behind this fraud and corruption case should be supporting a councillor’s right to have the matter raised and debated in public.

“All councillors need to take back control of the council. If we don’t and the truth is locked away in this report, then what real purpose are we serving?”

Read more: West Dunbartonshire Council names and shames firms who owe tax

The report states both internal audit and Police Scotland found “no conclusive evidence” to confirm the allegations that “council officers have received hospitality from a director of a company that the council has done a considerable amount of business [with] over a number of years”.

It continues: “From the review of the tendering and contracting arrangements internal audit were unable to establish if REDACTED or REDACTED were given preference over other contractors.”

But, it agrees procurement policies and procedures were “regularly not followed within both roads and greenspace across all contractors”.

It said: “The REDACTED managers who work in roads and greenspace have all stated that they were aware of the policies surrounding procurement but decisions were regularly made not to follow these policies.”

And it agrees there was a “culture of non-compliance” and “significant changes must be made”.

At the meeting last month, Cllr Bollan said: “Three senior officers have had their fingers in the till.

“During the investigation, one of the allegations was that a senior officer took a tender document from this council to the owner’s house of a company that this council do business with and was allocated £2.4m. The allegation is that the document was altered and the following day that tender was allocated.”

A council spokeswoman said the motion was blocked because it would force staff to break the law.

She said: “If agreed, the motion would compel the council to commit an intentional data breach. Under standing orders, any motion where there is clear illegality can only be included on the agenda with the sanction of the provost.

“If any member has information that council money has been misappropriated, this should be passed to internal audit or the police.”

She added that the report explains each redaction and Cllr Bollan could seek a further review and then appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, something he has already threatened to do.