A TOTAL of six fraud investigations are being carried out at Somerset County Council.

Bosses at County Hall have refused to give out any details while the probes are ongoing, but police have not been called in at this stage.

It is unknown if the enquiries are linked in any way or are all totally separate.

A spokesman for the Taunton-based local authority said: "We can confirm a small number of fraud investigations are currently underway and for that reason we will not be commenting further at this time.

"We won’t be giving further details on ongoing enquiries."

The investigations were reported to councillors during an audit committee meeting and an update will be given at the next meeting on Thursday, November 23, while the meeting in January will have "an anti-fraud and corruption-themed agenda".

Councillors have been reluctant to speak to the County Gazette about the situation due to the lack of detail coming out so far.

But an insider at County Hall said: "I'm not surprised that there's an investigation.

"In fact, I'd be more worried if there were no fraud investigations going on in an organisation of this size.

"With so many staff, you're always going to get errors and on occasions, fraud."

It is believed investigators think some of the investigations could provide evidence of fraud, although others could be dropped.

The county has an annual budget of around £320 million, going up to £400 million with its reserves.

The council spokesman did say the investigations have "no link" to the recently opened £22 million Northern Inner Distributor Road (NIDR) between Staplegrove Road and Priory Avenue, which has been mired in controversy.

County Hall remains in dispute with its contractor Carillion over the final bill after the road was completed more than two years late.

The spokesman added: "We remain in dispute with Carillion and will not be commenting further at this time."