SIR, In July 2007, South Oxfordshire District Council placed £2.5m of public money on deposit with an Icelandic bank because the interest rates seemed almost too good to be true.

The council overlooked the fact that, if something seems too good to be true, it generally is.

In July 2008, international credit agencies downgraded the Icelandic banks and many financial commentators started to issue warnings about the stability of these banks.

The council ignored these warnings and sat on its hands. On October 9, 2008, the bank in question predictably went bust, owing the council £2.5m in council taxpayers’ funds.

Some money is being slowly recovered from the bank’s liquidator, but the end result will be a very substantial loss, to which must be added the high costs accrued over more than five years of legal and other advice, while trying to recover some of our money.

In any commercial business, heads would have rolled over such a debacle.

In SODC, it seems that no one carries the can for any errors; the chief executive continues in post with his six-figure salary and the promise of a gold-plated pension, the leader of council was later honoured with an MBE, and no single person was ever reprimanded or criticised in the slightest way.

Unless, and until, individual council employees are made fully accountable for their actions, public funds continue to remain at risk through error, inefficiencies and incompetence.

William Dodds, High Street, Benson