Official audit bodies, at both federal and state level, check on how money devolved to local councils is spent.

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Certainly the most official audit of its use - in 2011 - showed that 94% of people thought the use of the pathway had been explained to them and that they had been involved in the decision to use it.

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" The Sigar audit, the official added, "does not carefully distinguish between taxable and tax-exempt contracts.

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But the National Audit Office argued an official estimate that this would help 140, 000 households over 10 years was based on "limited evidence".

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Its brief quoted an IRS official who had explained at an IRS meeting in San Francisco that audit requests from members of Congress or their staff had been shredded and also suggested how future requests from Capitol Hill could be camouflaged.

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