‘Welsh Government handling of AWEMA symptomatic of grants management’

The Public Accounts Committee has published its report this week into the Welsh Government’s handling of grants to community, voluntary and third sector organisations  following the AWEMA scandal last year and unsurprisingly funds a number of failings with the system that was is in place including a lack of co-ordination between government departments and says a culture change is required, but the Committee also stated things have started to change.

At the report launch Darren Millar AM, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee said “The problems which emerged at the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association (AWEMA) are symptomatic of the weaknesses that have been identified time and again in the Welsh Government’s grants management systems.” said

“People outside the Welsh Government may think of it as a single entity: ‘the Welsh Government.’ But in managing its grants, the Welsh Government currently appears to operate as a collection of different departments that don’t necessarily know what other departments within the organisation are doing, or what they have done in the past.

“One of the biggest things that the Welsh Government can do is to itself prioritise the importance of getting on top of its grant management processes.

“We recognise and welcome some of the progress detailed to us during the course of our inquiry, but we believe a change in cultural approach to managing grants is necessary to ensure problems similar to those which came to light at AWEMA do not happen again.
“In a time of economic hardship, it is vital that Wales gets the best from every pound of public money spent.”
Among the 18 recommendations are

The Welsh Government publishes an annual grants report which sets out how individual grants were reviewed in its Grants Management Review, which alternative funding options were considered, and what rationale was used to determine the most effective funding options in each case;

The Welsh Government sets out timescales for the introduction of a central grant management IT system, and the implementation of a Customer Relationship Management system; and,

The Welsh Government develops a mechanism for escalating its monitoring arrangements in response to specific concerns arising around financial irregularities or governance issues, including when an organisation is given ‘the benefit of the doubt.’

Whether the change is enough to avoid another AWEMA situation will remain to be seen  and the report while welcome comes a long time after the whole lack of scrutiny from the Welsh Government's over grant giving has faded from public and political view.  

The full report with full recommendations are avaliable to download here

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