A report examining the sale of Cambridge Folk Festival tickets on the internet has been published by Cambridge City Council.
The report details the findings of a review into the council's appointment of SecureTicketUK, an online ticket sales company based in Stockbridge, Hampshire.
SecureTicketUK was appointed by the council in December 2007 to sell tickets online for the 2008 festival. A total of £644,000 from ticket sales was due to be paid to the council in August of last year but the money was never handed over.
When the council initiated legal proceedings SecureTicketUK put itself into voluntary liquidation. The council remains in talks with the liquidators on ways of recovering the money.
Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith, leader of Cambridge City Council, announced the review in January.
Its overall conclusion is that the council's own procedures were not followed. This meant that the expected safeguards were not in place to protect the council against the risk of SecureTicketUK failing to pay over the money it owed. The review report also sets out a number of recommendations.
Cllr Nimmo-Smith said: "While the fact remains we were badly let down by a supplier the review has revealed serious shortcomings.
"The council's money was exposed to an unacceptable level of risk because our own procedures were not followed and therefore the requisite safeguards were not in place.
"As I have said before it is imperative that we do all we can to minimise
risk to public funds. This means making sure our procedures are robust and that they are adhered to.
"I am
determined that we do everything possible to make sure this can't happen again. I will be saying to the members of Civic Affairs
Committee that we should implement the report's recommendations in full."
The report will be presented to a meeting of the council's Civic Affairs Committee on 30 March.
