Concerns over staff morale at Nottingham City Council have been raised amid its continued attempts to change a 'negative' culture.
An internal audit conducted after the collapse of Robin Hood Energy revealed the prevalent culture led to poor governance across the council's operations.
Numerous areas of concern included a lack of experience, skills and poor risk management.
The Labour-run authority is now looking to improve this culture, all while under the financial constraints that come with a legal duty to balance its books.
Councillor Sam Webster, the portfolio holder for finance who represents the Castle ward, said he "worries about the morale" in the council during a scrutiny committee meeting on February 9.
Staff have been doing a "bloody difficult" job, he said.
The committee heard the Government-appointed Improvement and Assurances Board, chaired by Sir Tony Redmond, had been generally pleased with progress.
But it was said it would take time for tangible cultural changes to become evident.
The negative culture played a considerable role in the council's financial failures, including the 'institutional blindness' which led to millions of pounds of tax payer cash being pumped into Robin Hood Energy even as it was failing.
Only recently another financial blunder came to light, with the council stating it had discovered a series of 'unlawful' payments totalling £15m.
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Councillor Jane Lakey, who represents Bulwell and sits on the scrutiny committee, said: "What we are interested in are the outcomes, not so much how things look on paper.
"What went wrong before was that people were not undertaking their roles as they should have done, that councillors in some cases were ignoring senior officers' advice.
"Where in this cultural change are we focusing on healthy challenging?"
Richard Henderson, the director of human resources, replied to say "there is no easy answer to that" but said a new culture would be about "accepting" appropriate challenges.
"Part of that then that came out of the non-statutory review was about setting a new standard for personal responsibility, behaviour and a recasting of culture of the whole organisation including greater clarity on councillor and officers' roles and responsibilities," he said.
The council has so far taken steps to address the need for cultural change through a top-tier officer restructure as well as commencing a new development programme for officers and councillors.
As part of this restructure Sajeeda Rose was appointed as the corporate director for growth and city development, while Frank Jordan was hired as the council's director of resident services.
The leader of the council, Dales ward councillor David Mellen, added: "I think there is still work to be done on the culture of the organisation and how that appears to various of our customers, partners and to the city as a whole."
