THE CHAIR of Wales’ environmental protection and enforcement agency has quit her post after her organisation was described as ‘out of control’ by Llanelli AM Lee Waters.
Diane McCrea’s resignation was accepted ‘with immediate effect’ by Cabinet Secretary for the Environment Lesley Griffiths after members of the Public Accounts Committee and former AM Simon Thomas expressed anger and disbelief that the body’s accounts had been qualified for the third year running by the Wales Audit Office.
And to add insult to injury, the reason for the accounts’ qualifications was the same as it had been for the two previous years, the apparent inability of Natural Resouce Wales to enter into lawful contracts in relation to timber sales.
The avalanche began on Tuesday, July 17, when Simon Thomas raised the issue during business questions in the Senedd.
The then Mid and West AM said: “I think there’s something rotten in the governance of Natural Resources Wales now. My patience has run out with them. They keep assuring me that these things will be done and lessons will be learned, and we’ve got another set of qualified accounts.”
He continued: “I’ve had complaints from timber contractors in my own region, including in Meirionydd Dwyfor, of problems with the contracts being let. I think there’s something seriously wrong here that your Government needs to tackle.”
At that point Leader of the Assembly and government business manager Julie James confirmed that her Cabinet colleague Lesley Griffiths was meeting the Chief Executive and Chair of the NRW the following morning.
If Tuesday was bad, Wednesday was worse for NRW.
Llanelli AM Lee Waters led the charge in the Senedd with a damning summary of precisely what had gone wrong and why.
Mr Waters reminded AMs that the Public Accounts Committee had only the previous year condemned the agency for giving a £39m contract to BSW Timber of Newbridge-on-Wye without going through a proper tender process. That scandal had cost the previous CEO of NRW, Emyr Roberts, his job.
But undaunted and apparently in flagrant disregard for the WAO’s previous scathing reports and the Assembly’s own criticism, NRW had done much the same again.
This time it had entered into 59 separate contracts without evidence that market value had been achieved and – in some instances – with no evidence of any tendering process.
Lee Waters pointed out: “Twenty one of these were to BSW Timber, the same company that had reneged on the last deal. What is going on in NRW? To have their accounts qualified for the third year running is unprecedented and frankly outrageous. I’m struggling to think of an explanation for why this might be.
“Might it be corruption or incompetence? But it does appear that the forestry section of NRW is out of control; the internal audit controls are not fit for purpose.”
Acknowledging the Auditor-General’s view that new NRW Chief Executive was taking the issue seriously, Mr Waters turned his fire on to Diane McCrea.
“She was in charge last year. I think this should give us pause for thought about creating large organisations like this. If this was any other organisation—if this was a local authority, we’d be putting them under special measures.
“There should be accountability from the senior leadership at board level and at the executive level of this organisation, which does seem to be out of control.”
In response, Lesley Griffiths confirmed that NRW’s new Chief Executive was reorganising the commercial services function within NRW, including the appointment of a head of commercial services.
The chief executive has also appointed Ernst & Young to carry out an independent review of the key commercial business areas and governance arrangements.
Lesley Griffiths continued to assure Members that she would be keeping a very close watch on the situation.
Nick Ramsay, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee of which Lee Waters is a member, echoed the Labour AM’s words, expressing both exasperation and bafflement and confirmed that his Committee would be returning to the question of NRW’s handling of millions of pounds of public money contracts during September.
Raising the issue of potential corruption again, Simon Thomas asked Lesley Griffiths: “Can the chair continue? And, secondly, will you send in your own officials to examine these contracts, top to bottom, and make sure that every single one of them is not being done with any gifts and favours involved in them?”
Confirming that she would indeed be sending her officials in, the Cabinet Secretary fought shy of a definitive answer to the first of Simon Thomas’ questions.
However, the pause did not refresh.
On July 19, the Cabinet Secretary published a written statement: ‘I have today accepted the resignation of the Chair of Natural Resources Wales (NRW). This is an appropriate response in the light of the recent WAO report which qualifies the accounts for the third time, and the concerns and criticisms from all parties in the Assembly’.
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