The Labour Welsh Government unsurprisingly won the vote
and absolved themselves of any blame despite 19 damming reports from the Wales
Audit Office regarding their failures to management money since devolution
began.
The debate did however raise some issues that could help
avoid such catastrophic failures of financial management in the future.
Firstly it had to be scheduled in Opposition time, not Government
time proving as if we needed additional confirmation that no Welsh Government
Minister has learned anything from the AWEMA farce of the past 12 months.
Secondly Conservative Suzy Davies asked whether the type
of financial scrutiny debate it needs to be a regular feature of Assembly business
from now on – the Welsh Government is culpable but if the 19 reports are anything
to go buy the opposition needs to up it game as well.
Thirdly the point was raised by former Plaid Cymru leader
Ieuan Wyn Jones that Wales is more dependent
on grants than any other devolved administration , he said ‘That is, of course,
very important, but the auditor’s report also says that the use made of grants
in Wales in very much higher than in other countries—he refers specifically to
other devolved Governments, such as those in Scotland and Northern Ireland. He
is, in fact, saying that we depend more on grants and use more of them than is
the case with others. Naturally, when that happens, examples of mismanagement
also increase.'
A fair point and one that should surprise nobody, Jane
Hutt called Grant giving the 'Welsh Way' which sums up the prevailing attitude
in Wales and sadly shows why if we want a more successful, enterprising Wales
there is a lot of work to do to change ingrained attitudes of dependence that are.
The full transcript of the session is here
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