Manchester council has so far handed out just 27pc of the business grants it has been given by government to support struggling small firms during the coronavirus crisis.
The city is some way behind other councils across the region, which in some cases have handed out more than 60pc of their pots.
Ministers provided Manchester town hall with more than £120m last month to give grants to small and medium sized businesses that need tiding over during the lockdown.
According to figures published by the government on Monday, the city had at that point handed out just over £20m of that - 16.6pc - although the town hall says that the figure now stands at 27pc.
Only one in six of the almost 10,000 firms it has identified as potentially being in need had received cash by the start of the week, however.
By comparison, Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton and Bury had handed out more than half of their pots.
Manchester town hall said the delay was due to a combination of the scheme being completely new and introduced at short notice, a high number of complex cases and many firms not providing sufficient details when they apply.
It also said it was spending time checking for fraudulent claims in order to ensure public money is not wasted, by ensuring applicants are eligible for the scheme and have given the correct bank details.
Coun Carl Ollerhead, executive member for finance, said: "We are committed to supporting businesses as much as possible during the Covid-19 outbreak and we are currently working through thousands of applications for grant funding, redirecting our staff from other areas to cope with the volume and help speed up the process.
“We know that this money will help people when they need it most and we appreciate the patience of businesses as we work through these applications - but it’s also important that we get this right.
“These grants are being made available using public money, which is why it’s vital we put in the necessary checks to make sure funding is provided only to legitimate businesses - weeding out fraudulent claims in the process.
“In the meantime, if you know that information is missing in our records - such as bank details - please let us know as soon as possible so we can update your account and get a payment out to you as quickly as possible.”
Manchester council also said it had diverted staff from other parts of the authority to speed up the process, now processing 500 claims a day. It said it aimed to have distributed half of the fund by the end of Friday and intends to have handed out the rest next week.
More information about support for businesses in Manchester can be found here.
According to the government figures published on Monday yesterday, Rochdale council had handed out the largest proportion of its allocated funding - at 64pc of its allocated £47m - and Salford had distributed the second lowest after Manchester, at 33pc.
Salford council said yesterday that staff were working ‘round the clock’ to get the money out and said a further £2m had been distributed in the intervening period.
Coun Bill Hinds, lead member for finance, urged any businesses who think they may be eligible for funding to apply.
“We’ve received great feedback from some small businesses who’ve thanked us for processing the grant so quickly and said how grateful they were to receive this money which will go a long way to support them and their loyal staff through this devastating time,” he said.
Read more of today's top stories here
“However, we haven’t received applications from all the businesses which may be eligible for this support. I’d urge any business owner who has not yet applied to check www.salford.gov.uk/cvbusiness to see if they qualify and if they do to submit their application along with supporting information.
"We want to make sure we help every business we can.”
Get breaking news first on the free Manchester Evening News app - download it here for your Apple or Android device. You can also get a round-up of the biggest stories sent direct to your inbox every day with the MEN email newsletter - subscribe here. And you can follow us on Facebook here.
