Thursday, October 18, 2012

Welsh Government control of grant aid "weak" says report

The long-awaited Wales Audit Office report (pdf here) into the AWEMA scandal has concluded that the "management and coordination of grant funding to AWEMA ... has often been weak". Its criticism is milder than that of an earlier report, but it provides useful background information including a timeline. This may not be the end of the matter. BBC Wales states that a file is with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Peter Black AM has responded: “The negligence that has been exposed in this report highlights something that most of us knew already – that Labour can’t be trusted to act responsibly with the public’s money.

“Time and time again allegations about Awema were raised with the Welsh Labour Government, but still it failed to put things right.

“It is nothing short of disgraceful that an organisation as badly run as Awema was allowed to continue receiving millions of pounds of public money, while this Welsh Government sat back and did nothing. 

“For months the Welsh Labour Government has hidden behind the investigation into this report, using it as a reason not to comment. In spite of intense public and media interest, the Government thought that it had the right to wriggle out of being held to account. It is now time for Ministers to explain themselves. The people of Wales deserve to know why it was considered appropriate for Awema to receive over £7m of public funds.”


Monday, October 15, 2012

LibDem AM leads fight against bad park home site owners

There are fair site owners who do not take advantage of park home residents, but too many are unscrupulous, as this BBC report shows.

South Wales West AM Liberal Democrat Peter Black is fighting for park home residents in Wales. His private members' bill, aimed at reforming the civil legislation surrounding mobile home sites, is due to go before the assembly later this month.


Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Labour catching up with what Liberal Democrats are doing in government

Things Labour are proposing as if they're new that @LibDemsare already doing in govt, No 1: Setting up a business bank.

Things Labour are proposing as if they're new that @LibDemsare already doing in govt, No 2: Boosting the number of apprenticeships.

Things Labour are proposing as if they're new that @LibDemsare already doing in govt, No 3: Separating retail and investment banking.

Things Labour are proposing as if they're new that @LibDemsare already doing in govt, No 4: Boosting house building.