POWYS Teaching Health Board (PTHB) says it has already paid off £4 million worth of debt to Powys County Council (PCC)

And it says another £1 million will be paid soon.

At a recent meeting of PCC’s health and scrutiny meeting, it was revealed that discussion had been taking place between the authority and health board over historic debts.

Councillors told officers not to be afraid of taking PTHB down the legal route to recover the money.

A spokesman for PTHB, said: “As a health board we very much value our close relationship with Powys County Council.

“At any one time, and particularly at the end of the financial year, thousands of invoices move through the system of validation and authorisation before payment is made.

“We can confirm that of the amounts identified at the time of the writing of the committee report, £4 million has already been processed and paid and a further £1 million is being validated for payment.

“Any further amounts are being actively managed by the finance directors of the health board and the council.”

The spokesman added:  “PTHB takes its responsibility to pay invoices on time very seriously while ensuring scrutiny of the accounting process.

“We can confirm that during 2018/19 we exceeded the Welsh Government requirement that we pay 95% of invoices within 30 days of receipt.”

At PCC’s health and care scrutiny committee meeting, chairman Cllr Gwilym Williams, Conservative – Disserth and Trecoed), said he would invite PTHB chief executive, Carol Shillabeer, to a  future meeting.

He expected that she would face questions from members on the financial situation.

PCC’s corporate director for transformation, Vanessa Young, had told the committee that she was discussing the issues with PTHB’s finance director.

Ms Young also said that everyone was “keen to resolve the issue” and hopefully going down the legal route could be avoided.