The Welsh Department for the Economy and Transport’s Annual Assurance Report is shocking.
It is not surprising that the Welsh government’s own internal auditors failed to give the Department of Economy and Transport a clean bill of financial health.
This internal government report shows financial chaos within Ieuan Wyn Jones’ department. However, this comes as no surprise as during his time in office, the whole department has been badly run. Just last year we revealed the scandal of the lavish lifestyles of some of the staff at International Business Wales.
I am very concerned about the attitude the Department has taken towards this report. They have rejected many recommendations classed as ‘significant’ and ‘fundamental’ that have been suggested by the auditors. What is also embarrassing for the Minister is the fact that the auditors strongly criticise the weakness in control of the government’s flagship programme of developing Welsh Technium Centres. They talk of risk of fraud, loss, impropriety and poor value for money. The Labour-Plaid government’s denial is astounding.
This damming report is just another in a long list of failings and ineptitude of the Minister and serious questions must be asked about how this Department is managed. Over the last three years, the one Department that should have been at peak performance was Economy and Transport, however, unfortunately, for the Welsh economy, this has just not been the case.
What is even more worrying is that both BBC Wales and I have had similar and legitimate freedom of information requests blocked by the Labour-Plaid government on similar issues. We should have a right to access this information as part of our role in scrutinising the government and the public have a right to know what is really going on in this Department. I want Ieuan Wyn Jones and the First Minister to release this information as soon as possible. The Labour-Plaid government are clearly trying to hide their failures.
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It’s a scandal that a large part of the meagre Welsh settlement – it is acknowledged that we receive less than our due, a situation which is not going to be rectified soon – should be squandered in this way.
The laws around FOIA requests should be tightened somehow. How on earth can they get away with blocking your request? They have got to have a good reason. In this case that is doubtful. They and I know the Information Commissioner is absolutely useless. Just their to back up the powers to be.
We need an Independent Information commissioner, with some teeth. How can we achieve this?
The situation vis-à-vis Welsh Technium Centres is very troubling. I recently contacted Technium with a view to offering hi-tech startups free tips on cracking the US market. Wales badly needs to develop ‘IP rich companies”, particularly companies with IP that can be leveraged in large export markets. But Technium is now under a cloud. Pretty sad -> for Wales.