SWINDON Council is to gamble £100,000 on a report card that it hopes will show it's doing a good job.

The council will spend the money, part of its nearly £500,000 audit bill, to bring forward the corporate assessment that normally occurs every five years.

The council hopes a good report means that it will come under less scrutiny from the Government and put it in line for more funding.

But the move comes as the council's own internal audit section releases a list of areas of "potential significant risk" within borough management.

While the council's overall position is rated "satisfactory", its housing benefits, IT, customer services and campus security were not up to scratch, the report says.

The housing benefits section had struggled with overpayments, fraud, appeals and client monitoring.

The report said the failings "remain an area of concern", particularly in the light of the council's privatisation of services under its Aspire programme.

There are also weak links in the council's computer systems.

"Although work has progressed on improving the council's ability to recover from a disaster, there is still more to be done and there are significant outstanding issues regarding IT security," the report by council internal auditor Nick Hobbs says.

It also calls for safety and emergency training for all council staff.

Audit Commission relationship manager Melanie Watson told the council's audit committee yesterday that the better the council performed, the less its annual audit would cost.

She said the corporate assessment aimed to "assess how well a council is run".

"The better a council is run, the less input we have," Ms Watson said.

A commission spokesman said that the cost of the regular audits depended on the amount of work done and the council's management ratings.

"It's a major bit of work that goes into depth," he said.

"It looks at their ambition, performance management and achievements. It cost £100,000. They have asked us to bring that forward."

Every year, the Government requires the council throw open its books to make sure its bookkeeping is accurate and the organisation is being properly run.

The bill for an external check and certificates from the Audit Commission is expected to reach £487,000.

Last year, the council paid £479,000 for its annual financial inspection.